Verdict with Ted Cruz - Merry Christmas： The 30 Best Movies of the 21st Century

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.320 Welcome.

00:00:06.020 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.040 And on this holiday weekend, we decided to replay an awesome episode that we did about

00:00:15.580 a year ago.

00:00:16.460 And that is Senator Ted Cruz's favorite movies, a great list.

00:00:20.780 And if you are like the two of us and you love to watch movies over the holiday break

00:00:25.880 with your family, you do not want to miss this list.

00:00:28.040 Senator, what's on your list?

00:00:29.480 What are you going to rewatch during Christmas this year?

00:00:32.040 Well, listen, let me just say Merry Christmas to everyone.

00:00:34.800 I hope you're having a wonderful, relaxing Christmas.

00:00:37.320 And one of the things that I've always done at Christmas from when I was a kid to now

00:00:41.480 is my family, we go to the movies.

00:00:43.620 My dad loves movies.

00:00:44.760 My mom loves movies.

00:00:45.700 And so we go to the movies, particularly Christmastime.

00:00:48.820 We'll go see movies.

00:00:50.180 And so we want to play you a list of 30 of the greatest movies of the 21st century.

00:00:56.460 And if you watch them, put a comment down below.

00:01:00.880 Let us know if you like the movies.

00:01:02.280 Let us know if there are any you want to add.

00:01:04.280 But here is 30, any one of which would be a great way to spend some time with your family

00:01:09.500 over this Christmas break.

00:01:11.740 Senator, people that don't know you well, I'm going to give them a little bit of a clue.

00:01:17.060 You absolutely love movies.

00:01:21.660 And you put together a list of your favorite movies and also series and shows that you watch.

00:01:28.040 And if you've ever wondered what Senator Cruz is watching when he's flying all the time,

00:01:31.820 here's a really good list we're going to be giving you on this Christmas.

00:01:35.300 Well, let me just echo that.

00:01:36.780 Merry Christmas.

00:01:37.420 I hope you're having a wonderful and blessed day.

00:01:39.740 I hope Santa came down the chimney and your kids are overjoyed and you're spending time

00:01:45.260 maybe with some hot cocoa.

00:01:47.140 We often do Christmas by the tree where I'll be in my bathrobe.

00:01:50.920 We'll all be in our pajamas.

00:01:52.300 The kids will be opening presents.

00:01:54.180 We all actually have cups of hot cocoa.

00:01:57.280 And it's a beautiful time.

00:01:58.500 And it's a beautiful time to reflect not just on the love your family has for each other,

00:02:02.940 but the love God has for us and the salvation he sent for us.

00:02:06.020 Now, I don't know about you, but over holidays, what my family has always done is we go to movies.

00:02:11.260 We go to movies over Thanksgiving break.

00:02:13.000 We go to movies over Christmas break.

00:02:14.780 I love movies as a kid.

00:02:16.620 Both my parents loved movies.

00:02:18.180 I would go to movies with my mom and dad when I was a little kid.

00:02:21.000 I still go to movies with them now.

00:02:22.580 By the way, you're a movie theater guy, just so people know this.

00:02:25.360 Oh, I like the real theaters.

00:02:26.840 I like the big screen.

00:02:28.020 I like popcorn and gummy bears and the experience of being there.

00:02:33.100 And by the way, I'm also rabid about staying until the very end,

00:02:37.960 until the last moment of the credits play.

00:02:39.760 I will not get up and leave.

00:02:41.640 There's a sense of completeness of appreciating the entirety of the movie.

00:02:46.760 And so what we decided we do today is put together just a compilation of movies that I love,

00:02:53.740 that I recommend to you.

00:02:55.240 And hopefully, as you're taking some time with your family,

00:02:57.940 maybe you'll go watch one of them and laugh or cry, and it'll touch you,

00:03:01.380 and you'll enjoy it.

00:03:02.880 And I think art and storytelling are beautiful, beautiful things.

00:03:06.040 So with that being said, here are the big shows and the big movies on Senator Cruz's list.

00:03:12.080 Merry Christmas.

00:03:13.360 I get asked all the time from many of you guys that are watching or listening right now,

00:03:18.060 what is Ted Cruz like behind the scenes?

00:03:21.660 So we thought we'd have a little fun.

00:03:23.400 I'm going to ask him some questions.

00:03:25.180 And you're even going to find out what his favorite movies are.

00:03:28.500 Senator, we're going to have a little fun.

00:03:29.740 And I get asked all the time when I'm all over the country.

00:03:32.760 It happened this last week in New York.

00:03:34.740 So what is Ted Cruz really like behind the scenes?

00:03:38.000 And I say, I actually, if people got to see the side of you that I know,

00:03:42.360 you're actually really fun to be around.

00:03:44.020 You're also a huge movie buff as well.

00:03:47.900 And so I'm going to ask some fun questions just to kind of let people know behind the curtain

00:03:53.300 who you really are.

00:03:54.480 So let's start with this.

00:03:56.040 What is the last thing you watched on a plane?

00:03:59.200 What is the last thing I watched on a plane was Outer Banks, which is a series.

00:04:06.480 It's a teeny bopper series.

00:04:07.900 And it's phenomenal.

00:04:08.680 I am in the middle of season three.

00:04:10.480 And there's a reason I'm watching a teeny bopper series, which is my youngest daughter,

00:04:14.460 Catherine, loves Outer Banks.

00:04:16.300 She's at camp right now.

00:04:17.580 And when I dropped her off at camp, she said, Dad, I want you to watch Outer Banks and I

00:04:23.000 want you to write to me in letters and tell me what you think as the season's progressing.

00:04:28.840 And so I've been regularly, I write to her about every couple of days and I tell her,

00:04:32.800 OK, here's where I am.

00:04:34.060 I'm at this point.

00:04:35.040 I'm at this point.

00:04:35.940 This character just died.

00:04:36.860 Who's your favorite character?

00:04:38.100 JB.

00:04:38.660 Yeah, mine too.

00:04:39.580 No doubt about it.

00:04:40.560 So she asked me that.

00:04:41.580 I'm a little troubled.

00:04:42.400 Her favorite character is JJ, who is kind of a, look, I guess if you're a 13 year old 0.60

00:04:48.200 girl, he's, you know, he's always doing the dumbest thing imaginable, but he's kind of

00:04:52.420 a, I like John B.

00:04:54.060 John B is a good character.

00:04:55.300 It's such a fun show.

00:04:56.360 So when you were growing up, what was it that you were watching?

00:04:59.820 High school, college?

00:05:01.220 By the way, spoiler alert.

00:05:02.700 I apologize if you haven't seen it.

00:05:04.460 I'm going to give a spoiler alert right now.

00:05:05.820 So just fast forward through this, if you don't want a spoiler alert, but in season

00:05:09.920 two, when, when, when Ward has blown up, I knew Ward was not blown up.

00:05:14.640 And so I wrote her, I said, yeah, Ward just died.

00:05:17.160 I'm very confident he's alive.

00:05:18.720 And I remembered they keep scuba gear in the boat.

00:05:21.420 He got in the scuba gear.

00:05:22.540 And then like seven episodes later, you got to figure it out and you're like, they got

00:05:27.680 to keep this, they got to keep the series.

00:05:29.540 So I felt pretty good that I was at least a step ahead of the teeny bopper series.

00:05:33.620 I like that.

00:05:34.400 So what were you watching in high school?

00:05:36.360 Like what were your favorite shows?

00:05:37.960 What was your favorite movie?

00:05:39.740 So I love movies.

00:05:41.560 My parents love movies.

00:05:43.080 Like, like we would, you know, this is what we do.

00:05:46.060 So, so every holiday, every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, my family, we go out and watch

00:05:50.000 movies.

00:05:50.560 Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?

00:05:51.780 Of course it is.

00:05:52.460 Okay, good.

00:05:53.140 Absolutely.

00:05:53.620 Yes.

00:05:53.840 There's only one right answer.

00:05:55.140 Okay, good.

00:05:55.640 Die Hard is absolutely a Christmas movie, but we would go out and do movies.

00:06:00.000 When I was a kid, when I was like eight, nine years old, my dad would drop me off at the

00:06:04.440 theater all Saturday and I'd watch like five movies.

00:06:07.780 I'd go from one theater to the next, to the next, and just watch everything there.

00:06:11.460 It's, we all love movies.

00:06:13.140 So what I've done, done today for this show is I put together a list of 25 movies.

00:06:18.860 Now this is not exclusive.

00:06:20.540 This is not the only 25 movies I like.

00:06:22.880 And I don't even know that it's my 25 favorite, but it's 25 awesome movies, which if you haven't

00:06:29.100 watched, I recommend you watch.

00:06:30.520 You will enjoy them.

00:06:31.460 You will laugh.

00:06:32.140 You will be moved.

00:06:33.260 You will get good things from them.

00:06:34.720 So let's go through the 25.

00:06:36.240 Well, I got to ask one more question for your 25.

00:06:38.100 What movie have you watched the most in your life over and over again?

00:06:41.640 Well, that actually happens to be number one on the list.

00:06:43.820 I knew it.

00:06:44.340 I like this.

00:06:45.080 So, so my favorite movie of all time is The Princess Bride.

00:06:48.280 Really?

00:06:48.760 I love The Princess Bride.

00:06:50.520 Why?

00:06:51.260 I think every character in it is exquisite.

00:06:54.640 Every line from every character is fantastic.

00:06:58.140 I'll tell you in college, we used to play a game called Drinking Princess Bride.

00:07:03.580 And so the way you play Drinking Princess Bride is you sit down with a bunch of college

00:07:07.220 kids, you put the movie on, and you try to say each line immediately before it's said.

00:07:13.460 If you get it right, you point at somebody, they have to drink.

00:07:17.180 If you screw it up even slightly, you drink.

00:07:21.220 And if two or more people say the same line at the same time, everybody drinks.

00:07:26.000 So when you get to the as you wishes-

00:07:26.940 So this is why you were so sober in college.

00:07:28.780 Now I understand it.

00:07:29.520 Look, when you get to the as you wishes, everyone can get them so they're all socials.

00:07:34.100 And it is a fun game.

00:07:35.880 My problem is I know just about every line from the movie, but I'll screw them up slightly.

00:07:40.120 So I end up kind of getting myself because I try an awful lot of them.

00:07:43.880 But it is an exquisite movie.

00:07:45.720 I've probably watched The Princess Bride, I don't know, a couple hundred times.

00:07:48.940 No way.

00:07:49.620 Yeah.

00:07:50.040 It is fantastic.

00:07:51.200 So that's number one on your list.

00:07:52.720 Far and away.

00:07:54.580 Number two on my list is The Godfather Saga.

00:07:57.320 Couldn't agree with you more.

00:07:58.160 One of the best series ever made, period.

00:08:01.140 And I'm not going to break it down between one, two, and three.

00:08:04.120 I even like three, which is a bit of a heretical idea.

00:08:07.580 I think three stands on its own as its own movie the least.

00:08:12.040 That three only makes sense in conjunction with one and two.

00:08:16.200 Which is when you're in the club.

00:08:17.660 I kind of like that.

00:08:18.660 Like you can't fake it and go see number three and think, oh, that was incredible.

00:08:23.480 You have to be in it.

00:08:24.540 And look, I quote all of them all the time.

00:08:27.480 You know, from three, every time I get out, they keep pulling me back in.

00:08:31.840 I will say it was a little depressing with my team where I turned, you know, Senate staffers

00:08:37.960 are all children.

00:08:39.840 You know, your average...

00:08:40.720 We should put that on a t-shirt.

00:08:42.060 Your average Senate staffer is like 23, 24, 25.

00:08:46.520 So things like Godfather quotes, they just don't get.

00:08:50.140 And so I said something.

00:08:53.580 I said, you know, this is the business we have chosen.

00:08:56.260 And like everyone looked at me confused.

00:08:58.600 And I said, okay, I have like six staffers there.

00:09:00.820 I said, all right, do any of you have any idea what I'm saying?

00:09:03.820 They're all like, no, no, no.

00:09:04.920 I said, okay, this is Godfather II.

00:09:08.400 And this is a conversation between Hyman Roth, who is clearly modeled after Meyer Lansky,

00:09:15.440 Hyman Roth and Michael Corleone, and they're down in Miami.

00:09:19.300 And Hyman Roth goes, Michael, I had a friend.

00:09:22.620 I had a friend since childhood.

00:09:25.100 Mo Green was his name.

00:09:26.980 And one day somebody put a bullet in his eye.

00:09:31.360 I did not ask who was responsible.

00:09:34.760 I did not seek retribution.

00:09:38.220 I said, this is the business we have chosen.

00:09:42.760 None of them had any idea what I was talking about.

00:09:44.880 Team building night in the Senate.

00:09:46.220 You should totally bring them in one, two, and three.

00:09:48.660 Just nine hours.

00:09:49.820 We're going to sit down.

00:09:50.420 This is what you're going to do.

00:09:51.820 That's team building 101.

00:09:53.680 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday.

00:09:55.500 All right, favorite line from any of the Godfathers, the best one.

00:09:59.700 Mine's the cannoli.

00:10:00.960 Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

00:10:02.760 Yeah, no-brainer.

00:10:04.300 Number three on your list.

00:10:06.100 Scarface.

00:10:06.900 Really?

00:10:07.580 Oh, I love me some Scarface.

00:10:09.160 Why?

00:10:10.040 Notice Pacino has two spots in my top three.

00:10:13.800 I've seen a theme here.

00:10:14.260 I like Pacino.

00:10:15.200 Okay, I love crime movies.

00:10:16.400 And look, Scarface, Tony Montana, he's Cuban. 1.00

00:10:20.060 I'm Cuban.

00:10:21.880 It's, you know, it is larger than life.

00:10:24.820 I can quote a lot of lines from it.

00:10:26.860 To be honest, I'm not going to because they're pretty off color, and I'm going to avoid putting 1.00

00:10:31.180 out on the podcast some of the language from it.

00:10:34.880 But it is...

00:10:37.240 So crime genre is your thing.

00:10:39.880 And I like Pacino.

00:10:41.200 Yeah, he's amazing.

00:10:41.980 So my favorite TV show is Criminal Minds.

00:10:44.480 I love Criminal Minds.

00:10:46.000 I'm actually shocked by that one, because if there was only one box that I could take

00:10:50.040 with me my whole life, like if I was stuck on a desert island, it'd be West Wing.

00:10:54.460 West Wing is fabulous.

00:10:55.500 I've watched every episode of West Wing.

00:10:56.980 I've watched every episode of Criminal Minds.

00:10:58.600 But Criminal Minds, I just find it fascinating.

00:11:01.080 Heidi hates it, by the way. 0.86

00:11:02.040 When Criminal Minds is on, she's like, turn that garbage off, because, you know, you've 1.00

00:11:05.200 got evil, vicious murderers. 0.99

00:11:07.040 I'm like, no, no, they're the bad guys, though. 0.89

00:11:08.580 It's all about stopping them.

00:11:09.940 But she just doesn't like that in the house. 0.98

00:11:11.640 All right, number four, Fletch.

00:11:15.200 Never seen it.

00:11:15.980 You've never seen Fletch.

00:11:17.480 Never in my life.

00:11:18.340 Okay, Ben, go home tonight.

00:11:19.480 What's it about?

00:11:20.120 And watch Fletch.

00:11:21.280 It may be the funniest movie ever made.

00:11:23.760 Really?

00:11:25.020 Chevy Chase plays Erwin Fletcher, an undercover investigative reporter.

00:11:30.260 It is absolutely hysterical.

00:11:31.960 I love Chevy Chase, so that's...

00:11:33.860 It's Chevy Chase's best movie.

00:11:35.920 Much better than Lampoon's Vacation.

00:11:39.460 Much better than...

00:11:40.460 And he's done a ton.

00:11:41.240 I love Chevy Chase, but Fletch is head and shoulders above them all.

00:11:46.280 You know Grant, who heads up my security detail.

00:11:49.080 Grant and I quote Fletch lines back and forth at each other every week.

00:11:54.380 Really?

00:11:54.960 Put it on the list.

00:11:55.860 Go and watch the movie.

00:11:56.640 I've never seen it.

00:11:57.480 It is spectacular.

00:11:59.240 All right, Fletch, I'm on it.

00:12:00.520 All right, number five, Amazing Grace.

00:12:03.700 Also never seen it?

00:12:04.880 A lot of people have not seen it, but it is a very good...

00:12:07.920 It is the true story of William Wilberforce.

00:12:10.680 Now, William Wilberforce was a member of parliament in the United Kingdom who led the effort to abolish the slave trade.

00:12:18.420 Very cool.

00:12:19.440 Is it a true story?

00:12:20.240 It's a true story.

00:12:20.800 Okay.

00:12:21.020 And Wilberforce, so when he started as a young MP, the slave trade was the United Kingdom's single greatest source of revenue.

00:12:32.200 It was their business.

00:12:33.140 And he begins as this young MP arguing, we must end the slave trade.

00:12:38.400 It is wrong.

00:12:39.340 It is immoral.

00:12:40.160 And everyone laughs at him.

00:12:41.780 And it would be like if you were in Texas standing up saying we should ban oil and gas.

00:12:46.840 Yeah.

00:12:47.140 I mean, it was that...

00:12:48.700 Absurd of an idea back then.

00:12:50.140 And he spends 50 years battling for it.

00:12:53.700 And the movie ends with him successfully championing and passing the legislation abolishing the slave trade and shutting down their most lucrative business because it was evil. 0.50

00:13:04.680 And by the way, the title, Amazing Grace, do you know where it comes from?

00:13:09.580 What?

00:13:10.360 So the person who wrote the hymn, Amazing Grace, was a friar who had been the former captain of a slave ship.

00:13:21.080 Really?

00:13:21.980 He was the captain of a slave ship.

00:13:23.780 And think of the words of the song, Amazing Grace.

00:13:26.160 Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

00:13:31.340 I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

00:13:37.680 And imagine the person writing that.

00:13:40.260 In that context.

00:13:41.360 Was the captain of a slave ship.

00:13:43.140 Presumably he had murdered people.

00:13:44.900 He had beaten people. 0.88

00:13:46.660 He had whipped people.

00:13:47.980 I mean, you think of the evil entailed in being the captain of a slave ship.

00:13:53.580 And then the amazing grace that God offered redemption, even in the face of the horrific evil, it puts a whole different character.

00:14:05.440 The book is by Eric Bataxas, who's a fantastic author.

00:14:09.400 Christian author, does great biographies.

00:14:11.300 I highly recommend Amazing Grace.

00:14:13.260 Number six, Unforgiven.

00:14:16.420 Never seen it.

00:14:17.520 Oh, Unforgiven is fiction.

00:14:19.220 This is why it makes me laugh when we get to do shows like this, because I will go watch these now.

00:14:25.000 So Unforgiven, best Western ever made.

00:14:28.180 Won the Academy Award for best picture.

00:14:30.020 Clint Eastwood is in it.

00:14:31.720 I could do an age joke here.

00:14:33.700 Was it in black and white?

00:14:34.980 No, no, no, no.

00:14:35.860 It was actually late Eastwood.

00:14:37.700 You were actually out of diapers when it came out.

00:14:39.960 Okay, gotcha.

00:14:40.800 Morgan Freeman is in it.

00:14:43.280 Gene Hackman is in it.

00:14:44.340 Gene Hackman is spectacular.

00:14:46.980 What's interesting about Unforgiven that is so powerful is it turns all of the stereotypes of the Western on its head.

00:14:55.660 So, for example, Clint Eastwood plays this outlaw who had turned over a good leaf and was good and then was going back, gets hired. 0.83

00:15:06.940 What happens is a woman who is a prostitute is badly cut up by a drunk cowboy and they put out a reward to kill the cowboy who cut her up. 0.90

00:15:18.500 And Clint Eastwood, as this retired outlaw, needs the money and so is coming to collect the reward. 0.98

00:15:25.860 And Morgan Freeman, his partner, comes with him.

00:15:28.520 But there's a point where Clint Eastwood, you know, there's a young kid who wants to be a gunslinger and he's like practicing on shooting fast.

00:15:36.880 And like Clint Eastwood says, well, you know, for me, this is about as fast as I can draw my gun, point it, aim at it, pull the trigger and hit what I'm aiming at.

00:15:48.680 And he said in most firefights, people are scared out of their mind and they're just terrified and whoever can kind of calmly engage is who wins. 0.90

00:15:58.640 And there's there scenes where like everyone's like, oh, crap.

00:16:01.260 And they shoot their foot and they drop their gun and they're like freaking out. 0.68

00:16:04.220 And he kind of and he would just get drunk and just sort of systematically bang.

00:16:08.760 And it it really did invert many of the the conventional wisdom of being a fast draw on everything else.

00:16:17.040 And Gene Hackman's character is hysterical.

00:16:20.280 It is. He's the sheriff who initially you think might be the hero, but he very quickly becomes an antihero.

00:16:28.400 So excellent movie.

00:16:30.780 Canadian women are looking for more, more of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders and the world around them. 0.70

00:16:37.100 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:16:40.860 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:16:42.040 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:16:43.000 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:16:52.760 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:16:56.000 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:17:01.960 Number eight, Team America.

00:17:04.240 I've actually seen it.

00:17:05.600 Hilarious.

00:17:06.180 And I'm going a little edgy.

00:17:07.420 So Team America, Team America, World Police.

00:17:10.320 It's a puppet movie.

00:17:11.380 I remember when it came out, everybody was in shock, but I was dying laughing.

00:17:15.180 So Heidi doesn't like movies very much. 0.88

00:17:17.240 I took Heidi to see it.

00:17:18.440 She almost fell to the floor laughing. 0.98

00:17:20.700 So she y'all clicked on that.

00:17:22.120 It is screamingly funny.

00:17:23.840 Now, it makes fun of both sides.

00:17:25.700 Yeah, it makes fun of Republicans, Democrats.

00:17:28.280 Everybody.

00:17:28.680 It's the guys who do South Park who did it.

00:17:30.940 It is puppets.

00:17:34.020 They are truly equal opportunity offenders.

00:17:36.300 It is.

00:17:36.720 Now, I'm going to give a warning.

00:17:37.800 Every third word is a profanity.

00:17:41.040 Yes.

00:17:41.160 If you're offended by profanity, skip this suggestion.

00:17:44.620 I will say when we were fairly newlyweds, we went on vacation with Heidi's parents down

00:17:49.860 at Lake Powell, which is fabulous.

00:17:51.760 And we brought it with us.

00:17:54.340 And we sort of, like Heidi and I remember, this is really, really funny.

00:17:57.660 And I think we didn't quite remember that every third word is a profanity.

00:18:01.540 And I'm sitting there with Heidi's parents as we're listening to the blinkity-blink-blink-blink-blink-blink.

00:18:07.560 We didn't finish the movie.

00:18:09.060 Like, ten minutes into it, we just turned it off.

00:18:10.620 Heidi, I can't believe you brought this in front of your parents, right?

00:18:13.360 Yeah.

00:18:14.180 But it's still funny as all get it.

00:18:17.040 All right.

00:18:18.260 Next movie, Patton.

00:18:19.680 Yep.

00:18:20.120 Amazing.

00:18:21.440 Amazing movie.

00:18:22.360 I've watched Patton probably five, six times in my life.

00:18:25.320 All right.

00:18:25.580 Do you know what I did before every Supreme Court argument I ever did?

00:18:28.700 Well, I can figure it out now.

00:18:30.080 You watched Patton.

00:18:30.740 Not the whole thing.

00:18:32.020 Just which scene?

00:18:32.940 The opening speech.

00:18:33.700 Okay, yeah.

00:18:34.220 Just the opening speech, George C. Scott in front of the gigantic flag standing up and

00:18:39.520 saying, men, the objective is not to give your life for your country. 1.00

00:18:45.240 The objective is to make that other poor son of a bitch give his life for his country. 1.00

00:18:50.220 I mean. 1.00

00:18:50.480 I can dig that.

00:18:51.060 I can dig that.

00:18:51.920 It is.

00:18:53.300 Sound advice.

00:18:54.480 If you can watch that speech and not be inspired, you're dead.

00:18:58.000 Yeah.

00:18:58.500 Like, it is.

00:18:59.420 See, those are my weakness movies.

00:19:01.100 I love true stories.

00:19:02.820 I love good versus evil movies.

00:19:05.620 I absolutely love sports movies as well.

00:19:07.480 But there's always usually a big speech in those.

00:19:09.420 By the way, a buddy of mine collects historical military equipment and clothing and uniforms,

00:19:14.920 and he has Patton's dog tags.

00:19:17.540 No way.

00:19:18.380 And I actually have worn Patton's dog tags.

00:19:21.340 They have rested on my bare chest.

00:19:24.160 And I literally felt like I was ready to pull out a pistol and start shooting in an airplane.

00:19:27.980 Like, it made you think about that that actually rested right above the heart of Patton.

00:19:34.340 That's incredible.

00:19:35.000 Pretty wild.

00:19:35.560 That's a good thing to own.

00:19:36.620 All right.

00:19:37.280 Next movie, The Sting.

00:19:39.580 Classic.

00:19:40.060 Have you seen The Sting?

00:19:40.520 No.

00:19:41.060 You've never seen The Sting?

00:19:42.020 I don't even know what it's about.

00:19:43.740 Oh.

00:19:45.180 Oh, Benjamin.

00:19:46.160 Benjamin.

00:19:46.660 Benjamin.

00:19:47.060 The Sting.

00:19:47.800 All-time classic.

00:19:49.100 Robert Redford.

00:19:49.840 Paul Newman. 0.93

00:19:50.600 They're con men.

00:19:52.280 It is. 0.72

00:19:52.740 This is where I could really mess with you.

00:19:54.640 Wait.

00:19:54.960 Newman does something outside of, like, Salsa?

00:19:57.240 It is hysterical.

00:19:59.660 It is beautifully done.

00:20:01.100 Go and watch.

00:20:01.740 And what's it about?

00:20:02.700 It's about con men.

00:20:03.980 Okay.

00:20:04.200 And it's worth watching.

00:20:07.120 I've probably watched it a hundred times.

00:20:08.820 No way.

00:20:09.260 It's such a good movie.

00:20:10.840 All right.

00:20:11.740 Next movie, Awakenings.

00:20:13.720 Yes.

00:20:14.500 I've seen that.

00:20:15.500 Once.

00:20:15.940 Only once.

00:20:16.420 So Awakenings is fabulous.

00:20:18.260 Robert De Niro.

00:20:19.460 You're a De Niro fan.

00:20:20.640 I like De Niro a lot.

00:20:22.140 Not a fan of his politics, but a big fan of his acting.

00:20:24.360 He's a great actor.

00:20:25.800 Although as much, De Niro got all the acclaim, but I actually thought Robin Williams stole the show.

00:20:30.980 Well, I love Robin Williams, so this is right up my alley.

00:20:33.580 Robin Williams is one of my all-time favorite actors ever.

00:20:37.500 I mean, he's an incredible comedic actor.

00:20:40.100 So you're going to laugh.

00:20:40.800 I was asked the question if you could have dinner with, like, any five people who would be at your table, living or alive or dead.

00:20:46.840 I had Robin Williams for years in my list because I think he's just one of the most brilliant actors and genuinely funny human beings.

00:20:53.440 So when Robin Williams passed, I genuinely cried.

00:20:57.200 And I wrote a long statement about Robin Williams on Facebook that I put up.

00:21:00.760 I hammered it out on my iPad because he is so funny.

00:21:05.540 His stand-up.

00:21:06.540 If you've ever watched his stand-up routine on golf.

00:21:09.300 Oh, I've watched it a hundred times.

00:21:10.420 The one on golf is, again, profane, language warning.

00:21:14.460 But as funny as anything that has ever been said, like, screamingly funny.

00:21:19.560 Awakenings, the portrayal he gives.

00:21:21.420 I actually like Robin Williams even better in dramatic performances than comedy.

00:21:25.140 And he's one of the funniest human beings ever alive.

00:21:28.300 Um, so, Awakenings.

00:21:30.880 Put it on the list.

00:21:31.500 Yes, fabulous.

00:21:32.480 All right.

00:21:33.460 The next two I view together.

00:21:36.420 Braveheart and Gladiator.

00:21:38.940 Both amazing.

00:21:40.140 No-brainers.

00:21:41.540 Incredible.

00:21:43.580 Bill Gibson, Russell Crowe, right?

00:21:45.380 Yes.

00:21:45.760 Back-to-back.

00:21:46.580 How can you get that wrong?

00:21:47.640 And both standing and fighting and fighting against oppression.

00:21:54.300 And they're epic, epic movies.

00:21:57.160 Again, if you're not inspired by them, you're dead.

00:22:00.460 Yeah.

00:22:00.880 Um, I will say, Mike Lee, there's an app where you can put yourself, you speaking, into an audio clip.

00:22:11.740 And he and I used to send things back and forth.

00:22:14.180 And, you know, at the end, when Mel Gibson is being executed, he screams,

00:22:19.200 Freedom!

00:22:22.180 So, Mike would send me videos of him screaming to Mel Gibson's voice,

00:22:26.520 Freedom!

00:22:27.640 It was pretty powerful.

00:22:30.100 All right, next.

00:22:31.940 Beverly Hills Cop.

00:22:33.740 Hands down, one of the funniest movies ever.

00:22:36.580 Just screamingly funny.

00:22:38.540 Eddie Murphy.

00:22:38.900 So, you're going to laugh.

00:22:39.700 I consider that a Christmas movie because it's like, days off, I want to watch the classic,

00:22:44.080 I watch that.

00:22:44.900 It is every moment of it.

00:22:46.580 Eddie Murphy remains one of my favorite actors of all times.

00:22:50.280 He's got a new one coming out, a sequel coming out on Amazon.

00:22:54.680 I think it's on Amazon Prime.

00:22:56.180 Did you see that recently?

00:22:57.440 I just saw it this last week.

00:22:58.600 I don't know which one it was, but they were teasing it.

00:23:00.200 Yes, they're doing a Beverly Hills Cop 2.

00:23:02.780 Okay, is that what it is?

00:23:03.600 Or 3.

00:23:04.240 Yeah.

00:23:04.400 But, look, the original Beverly Hills Cop is screamingly funny, and I actually have

00:23:10.060 three Eddie Murphy movies in a row because I love Eddie Murphy.

00:23:13.500 Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, and Coming to America.

00:23:17.300 So, Coming to America was one of the first movies that was really edgy that I remember

00:23:21.560 in my adolescence seeing.

00:23:23.920 Hilarious.

00:23:24.680 Again, screamingly funny.

00:23:27.020 And Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, and they play multiple characters and all the different,

00:23:30.400 you know, in the barbershop, when you have Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall going back and

00:23:34.380 forth, I mean, it's amazing.

00:23:36.600 And you know what?

00:23:37.120 They probably wouldn't let you make that movie today.

00:23:39.020 No, they would not.

00:23:39.760 No way.

00:23:39.960 It gets racially edgy in a way that, like, now, you know, the woke world.

00:23:44.860 Cancer culture would be all over that. 0.91

00:23:46.460 No, no, no, no.

00:23:46.960 You can't have any of that humor.

00:23:49.380 By the way, you want funny humor.

00:23:51.420 Go back to young Eddie Murphy on SNL when he was, like, 19 years old.

00:23:56.960 Brilliant and edgy.

00:23:57.700 And just edgy, comedic, like, brilliance.

00:24:01.860 I love, he's by far my favorite character ever on SNL when he was young Eddie Murphy

00:24:07.380 because it was just so funny.

00:24:09.540 I like it.

00:24:10.460 Mine's Farley, by the way.

00:24:12.000 Look, he was great and he put his hole into it.

00:24:15.840 Yeah.

00:24:16.800 I mean, I also love. 0.59

00:24:18.820 Fat man in a little jacket.

00:24:20.140 It's unbelievable. 0.98

00:24:20.960 That man down by the river.

00:24:22.460 I mean, but I also love, like, comedy when there's people falling over and he could do

00:24:27.000 that part.

00:24:27.540 Physical comedy was really strong.

00:24:28.940 Physical comedy was incredible.

00:24:29.840 Yep.

00:24:30.460 All right, next on the list, Wall Street.

00:24:33.180 Yep.

00:24:33.800 Just all-time Gordon Gekko.

00:24:36.140 Oh, yeah.

00:24:36.420 One of the great all-time classics.

00:24:38.740 By the way, a line that I quote frequently, Gordon Gekko is in the locker room getting cleaned

00:24:45.340 up after playing racquetball, and he turns to Charlie Sheen and he goes, I'm on the board

00:24:51.880 of the Bronx Zoo.

00:24:53.300 Cost me a million bucks.

00:24:55.060 That's the thing about wasps. 0.98

00:24:56.760 Love animals.

00:24:58.340 Hate people.

00:24:58.900 There's some insight there.

00:25:01.500 There is some insight there for sure.

00:25:03.820 Hidden Figures.

00:25:05.260 Yes.

00:25:06.300 Wonderful movie.

00:25:08.380 Incredible movie about the African-American female mathematicians who were foundational

00:25:14.340 to America going to the moon.

00:25:17.060 And for me, there are two kind of personal reasons why that movie is significant to me.

00:25:22.540 One, it's got to be because of Houston.

00:25:24.440 Well, when we went to see the movie, I took my mother to the movie. 0.90

00:25:27.780 I took Heidi to the movie.

00:25:28.700 I took both my daughters to the movie.

00:25:31.000 And it was interesting.

00:25:32.140 My girls, it was the first time they'd seen a movie that had segregation.

00:25:35.780 Yeah.

00:25:36.240 The bathroom is one of the most iconic scenes in that whole movie.

00:25:39.140 And it led to, I had a long conversation with both of them, and they were like, well,

00:25:43.060 why would people have done that?

00:25:44.420 And to talk about segregation and civil rights and just sort of walk through the history of

00:25:49.040 it, it prompted really good conversations with my girls.

00:25:52.480 But secondly, so my mom, my mom graduated from Rice in 1956, and she had a math degree.

00:26:01.900 And she went to work as a computer programmer at Shell.

00:26:05.720 She subsequently went to work at the Smithsonian.

00:26:09.000 And you remember the movie Hidden Figures begins with Sputnik being launched and sort of

00:26:13.380 the space race being beginning.

00:26:14.980 One of my mother's first assignments at the Smithsonian was to help compute the orbits 0.97

00:26:21.060 of Sputnik.

00:26:22.580 And so in front of the girls, I asked my mom, I said, Mom, you were doing this.

00:26:27.180 And in fact, you were doing it 10 years earlier.

00:26:28.900 You were doing it in the 50s.

00:26:30.620 Hidden Figures is set in the 60s.

00:26:32.180 And I said, how accurate is it?

00:26:34.640 And my mother thought it was very accurate, that it did a really good job of conveying what

00:26:39.400 it was like to be a woman in space and science and a technical environment.

00:26:46.260 And I commented to her.

00:26:47.820 I said, OK, one of the strange things to a more modern ear is that they referred to the

00:26:57.460 women there as computers. 1.00

00:26:58.800 Yeah.

00:26:58.960 And we think of a computer as a piece of metal.

00:27:01.860 But they were actually called computers because they were actually doing the math.

00:27:05.340 And my mother started laughing at me.

00:27:07.420 And she said her first job title was computer.

00:27:11.260 And when she started at Shell, she had a business card that said Eleanor Dara, computer.

00:27:16.620 No way.

00:27:17.420 And so in response to that, I introduced legislation to rename the street in front of NASA headquarters

00:27:26.220 Hidden Figures Way.

00:27:27.140 And this is actually a really cool story.

00:27:29.600 I introduced that legislation before it could pass.

00:27:33.520 And we would have gotten it passed.

00:27:35.160 But a D.C. city councilman saw that legislation and said, you know what?

00:27:38.780 That's a great idea.

00:27:40.320 And the D.C. city councilman introduced it in the D.C. city council.

00:27:44.060 Guy's a Democrat.

00:27:44.960 Yeah.

00:27:45.380 And he got it passed.

00:27:46.400 So the D.C. city council passes it.

00:27:48.600 That's cool.

00:27:49.300 So I went to the street sign dedication.

00:27:51.580 And that is the street sign there.

00:27:53.060 And I was there.

00:27:53.700 I spoke at the dedication.

00:27:54.400 And where is it?

00:27:55.120 It is the headquarters of NASA.

00:27:57.340 In D.C.

00:27:58.100 OK, cool.

00:27:58.780 And so NASA, the address of NASA is One Hidden Figures Way.

00:28:02.560 That's awesome.

00:28:03.040 And so I spoke at the dedication.

00:28:04.500 The D.C. city councilman spoke.

00:28:05.840 And he's a Democrat.

00:28:06.580 I'm a Republican.

00:28:07.700 And I told the story of my mom, which was really cool to get to tell.

00:28:11.880 And I said, look, at some level, you might say, listen, the street sign's not that big

00:28:15.980 a deal.

00:28:16.760 That one is.

00:28:17.340 But at another level, you know, 50 years from now, 100 years from now, some little girl,

00:28:22.820 some little boy is going to come visit NASA.

00:28:25.280 And they're going to look up and see the street sign.

00:28:27.080 And they're going to say, hey, what does that mean?

00:28:29.380 Yeah.

00:28:30.020 And they're going to hear the story of the pioneering African-American women who were

00:28:35.680 the mathematicians that got us to the moon.

00:28:38.040 And so it's where movies and stories are powerful.

00:28:41.980 Did any of the characters of the movie, did any of them get to come to that?

00:28:45.580 That they did.

00:28:46.100 They had passed by the time we did that.

00:28:47.840 So no.

00:28:48.680 All right.

00:28:49.080 We just got a few more.

00:28:51.140 Schindler's List.

00:28:52.740 One of the hardest movies to watch.

00:28:55.080 Yes.

00:28:55.860 The other one is that I can, I've only watched it one time because I just can't bring myself

00:28:59.940 to watch it again, is Lone Survivor.

00:29:02.740 Those two movies to me are must-sees.

00:29:05.760 But I just, I don't know if it's because I've become a dad and having kids now and watching

00:29:10.680 the kids.

00:29:11.260 I just can't watch them like I used to.

00:29:13.400 So as you know, a couple of weeks ago, I was at Normandy for the 80th anniversary of

00:29:18.460 D-Day.

00:29:19.060 And wildly enough, I got to meet Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, which was really cool.

00:29:24.020 And I had pretty extended conversations with both of them.

00:29:27.060 And they've done, look, their politics are both left of center.

00:29:29.900 But they've done an amazing job really honoring and telling the stories of the greatest generation.

00:29:35.520 Whether Saving Private Ryan, whether Band of Brothers, whether The Pacific.

00:29:39.780 And so we're talking about that.

00:29:42.060 And I was talking with Spielberg about Schindler's List.

00:29:46.120 And just, you know, talking with the heroes, the World War II heroes, who almost all say,

00:29:52.340 well, I could have done more.

00:29:53.800 I could have done more.

00:29:55.020 And the real heroes are under those crosses behind us.

00:29:58.580 And I was telling Spielberg, I said, hearing them say that reminds me of the end of Schindler's

00:30:04.740 list where Oscar Schindler is like, I could have done more.

00:30:08.700 And he looks down at his gold watch and he said, this watch, this watch could have saved

00:30:12.480 three more people.

00:30:13.920 Three more people are dead because I kept my watch.

00:30:17.380 And you think about the heroism of his rescuing Jews from the Nazis and the incredible courage,

00:30:23.240 but at the same time, the like, why didn't I do even more?

00:30:26.860 And that, to me, is the most beautiful moment of that movie is the sort of.

00:30:32.600 Did I do enough?

00:30:33.580 Yeah.

00:30:33.720 Okay, I'm going to take a detour, a detour to the world of musicals.

00:30:41.580 So I like musicals.

00:30:43.080 Do you like Broadway?

00:30:44.220 I do.

00:30:44.680 I love Broadway.

00:30:45.740 Absolutely.

00:30:46.140 So like you, if you go to New York, you would put it on your list to go see a show.

00:30:49.920 I love Broadway and I'm going to have four musicals on here.

00:30:52.820 I'm ready.

00:30:53.560 So number one is, is my father's favorite movie of all time, which is My Fair Lady.

00:30:59.100 Okay.

00:30:59.580 And My Fair Lady is fantastic. 0.98

00:31:01.820 I've seen it because of my mom and my sister multiple times.

00:31:05.000 Why can't the English?

00:31:06.100 I've never watched it outside of this.

00:31:06.940 Teach the children how to speak.

00:31:10.960 Norwegians learn Norwegians.

00:31:12.300 The Greeks are taught their Greek.

00:31:14.420 See, this is why I said this show would be entertaining,

00:31:17.040 because I would have never thought you were a musical.

00:31:19.440 Oh, it is spectacular.

00:31:21.040 Favorite Broadway show you've ever been to.

00:31:22.680 I'm going to get to that.

00:31:23.380 Okay, go ahead.

00:31:23.800 I'm going to get to that.

00:31:24.920 So the second one there is Oliver.

00:31:27.020 Yep.

00:31:28.160 Great.

00:31:29.320 Oliver is spectacular.

00:31:30.500 So, look, I was, in high school, I was president of the drama club.

00:31:34.560 I have way too many one-liners, but I'll leave that for another show.

00:31:37.240 Keep going.

00:31:37.820 You were captain of the tennis team.

00:31:39.460 I was president of the drama club.

00:31:40.580 Okay, I get that.

00:31:41.540 There's a reason why you would have stuck me in the locker if we had known each other.

00:31:45.000 Yes, yes.

00:31:45.740 That would have gotten you a smackdown for sure. 0.99

00:31:48.100 Yeah, yeah.

00:31:48.340 But, so, look, I, all politicians are frustrated actors.

00:31:53.100 It's just, it's just part of the, it is.

00:31:55.960 Did you act in high school?

00:31:56.740 Oh, yes, a lot.

00:31:57.940 What were you in?

00:31:58.800 So I did.

00:31:59.800 Do we have eight tracks of this, or what was it, a beta camp?

00:32:04.000 They may be somewhere.

00:32:05.560 Okay.

00:32:06.400 So let's see.

00:32:07.220 I've done Sound of Music twice.

00:32:09.140 What did you play?

00:32:09.940 So I played, the first time I played Rolf.

00:32:12.460 Yeah.

00:32:13.800 You know, and I warbled out, you are 16 going on 17.

00:32:17.780 No way.

00:32:19.020 And then the second time I played Max.

00:32:20.800 Yep.

00:32:23.580 I also, so I did Oliver, and Oliver's a fabulous show.

00:32:27.920 It's a classic, yeah.

00:32:28.640 So Oliver was my senior year, and the head of the music department told me, hey, we're

00:32:32.600 doing Oliver next year, and he said, you know, I'd love to have you play Fagin, if you

00:32:37.980 can sing it.

00:32:39.420 And my curse, look, I am a terrible singer.

00:32:41.840 I cannot carry a tune to save my, in a bucket.

00:32:45.080 Like, I wish I could, I have singing envy.

00:32:48.140 You were not given that, neither was I.

00:32:50.540 And so I actually went, and for like six months, I took voice lessons to try to get, be able

00:32:56.260 to sing, Fagin is such a fabulous role.

00:32:58.260 Did you get any better in the six months?

00:33:00.160 A little bit.

00:33:01.280 Yeah.

00:33:01.600 And so what happened, and the nice thing about Fagin, is Fagin's songs are more spoken

00:33:13.320 than sang. 0.83

00:33:15.400 So for example, the song reviewing the situation.

00:33:19.100 A man's got a heart, hasn't he?

00:33:22.880 Joking apart, hasn't he?

00:33:26.660 And though I'd be the first to admit that I wasn't a saint, I'm finding it hard to be

00:33:32.000 really as bad.

00:33:33.700 So you're going to see your dad next time, I'm going to say those six months is worth

00:33:36.000 it now, right?

00:33:36.560 I'm reviewing the situation.

00:33:42.120 Can a fellow be a villain all his life?

00:33:45.160 All the trials.

00:33:46.400 I know.

00:33:46.820 I'm not worried about you after you retire.

00:33:48.700 I know what you're going to do.

00:33:49.360 Better settle down and get myself a wife. 1.00

00:33:52.740 And, uh...

00:33:54.140 You remember it.

00:33:54.920 Life will cook and sew for you, and come for you, and go for you, and go for you, and

00:33:59.200 nag at you. 0.98

00:33:59.940 The finger, she will wag at you. 1.00

00:34:01.980 How many tickets do they sell for this is what I really want to know.

00:34:04.680 So, I prepared, that song was one, now it's mostly spoken, it's not really, so I could

00:34:12.860 do it marginally competently after six months practicing.

00:34:16.720 I did that at the tryout.

00:34:18.540 And what did he say?

00:34:19.320 And then afterwards, the music director said, hey, Ted, stick around.

00:34:22.560 And he went to the piano, and he said, sing this, and he went, da-da-da-da, and I went,

00:34:26.300 da-da-da-da-da-da, and he did it like three times, and he goes, okay. 0.99

00:34:30.400 I'm like, damn it. 0.98

00:34:31.200 Not happening. 0.99

00:34:31.960 So I was cast as Bill Sykes.

00:34:33.640 It's the second male lead, with no singing.

00:34:36.580 Yeah.

00:34:37.200 It's a fun role.

00:34:38.040 You're the villain.

00:34:38.740 You get to beat up Oliver Twist, and you're, but I wanted to play Fagin.

00:34:43.640 You gave it your all.

00:34:44.100 I wanted to play that role badly, and I did not get it.

00:34:48.780 All right, two more musicals.

00:34:53.800 Hamilton, which is utterly exquisite.

00:34:56.880 I've seen it multiple times.

00:34:58.580 It is brilliant.

00:35:00.420 It is beautiful.

00:35:01.320 It is powerful.

00:35:01.640 It is powerful.

00:35:03.020 My girls know the songs. 1.00

00:35:04.580 There are few things that make me happier than when my daughters are singing songs from Hamilton.

00:35:09.400 I mean, there was a period where they were obsessed with it.

00:35:11.880 You and I were talking about this the other day.

00:35:13.120 My dad, I took him to New York for the first time ever for his 70th birthday, and you said,

00:35:16.960 did you go see a show?

00:35:18.280 And I was like, do you want to see Hamilton?

00:35:19.800 He's like, I'd rather go to the Yankees game.

00:35:21.420 And then the next night, I was like, would you say, I'd rather have a nice meal?

00:35:24.640 I tried hard.

00:35:25.640 I tried to get him to Hamilton.

00:35:26.980 It just wasn't on the list.

00:35:28.200 And then my favorite music of all time is Les Mis.

00:35:31.100 Really?

00:35:31.540 And I love Les Mis.

00:35:33.120 Do you get choked up?

00:35:34.480 Be honest.

00:35:35.520 Because I'm a sucker for those things. 0.58

00:35:37.320 I get the lump in the throat.

00:35:38.340 I get completely choked up.

00:35:38.820 Yeah.

00:35:39.040 All right.

00:35:39.240 So what song gets you choked up?

00:35:40.720 Oh, the one, the most famous.

00:35:42.400 I'm terrible with it.

00:35:43.160 It's the one that Anne Hathaway does that's so good.

00:35:46.620 Oh, and she won the Academy Award for it.

00:35:49.380 Yes.

00:35:49.400 Every time it gets me.

00:35:50.400 So that is beautiful.

00:35:51.640 I'll tell you, the two that get me choked up are number one when John Valjean is saying,

00:35:58.420 let him live.

00:35:59.520 Yep. 0.99

00:36:00.300 And he's looking down and he says, you know, if I die, let me die. 0.94

00:36:06.820 Yeah. 0.98

00:36:08.000 Let him live.

00:36:09.060 Yeah.

00:36:09.180 And it's a prayer to God to let him live.

00:36:12.240 Every time.

00:36:13.080 I have tears every time.

00:36:14.480 And the other one that gets me is the song Empty Chairs and Empty Tables at the end when

00:36:21.620 everyone has died.

00:36:22.640 And I will confess at the end of the presidential campaign in 2016, as I walked through the empty

00:36:27.620 campaign office and I saw the empty chairs and empty tables, I heard the refrains of that

00:36:33.840 song.

00:36:37.620 So Les Mis is exquisite.

00:36:40.420 All right.

00:36:40.640 By the way, when I was, all right, so 1993, I was just finished my first year of law school

00:36:47.320 and I had a job in New York.

00:36:48.600 I was working in a law firm in New York for the summer.

00:36:52.260 And I decided to fly my mom to New York for the weekend.

00:36:56.700 And so it's 1993.

00:36:58.160 So I actually FedExed a plane ticket.

00:37:00.140 And this is back when a plane ticket was a piece of cardboard.

00:37:02.460 Yeah.

00:37:03.020 I FedExed a plane ticket to her with nothing else.

00:37:06.100 It was literally, she opened the FedEx package and just a plane ticket to New York fell out and

00:37:09.900 she called me and she's like, Ted, I assume this is you.

00:37:11.720 I said, yeah.

00:37:12.340 I had no note, no nothing, just a plane ticket and the FedEx thing.

00:37:15.100 Get on the plane.

00:37:15.680 I'll see you soon, mom.

00:37:16.580 So I flew her to New York and we went out to dinner at Boulay, which at the time was the

00:37:20.740 nicest restaurant in New York, was fabulous.

00:37:23.480 And then I took her one night to see Camelot, which was really fun.

00:37:26.820 Yep.

00:37:27.320 And then the next night to see Les Mis.

00:37:29.100 And did she love it?

00:37:30.020 She loved it.

00:37:30.600 And it, I.

00:37:31.860 That's one of those ironed memories for us in life.

00:37:34.360 Yeah.

00:37:34.540 No, no, that, that was just very cool to go do that.

00:37:38.200 All right.

00:37:39.280 So we have a total of three more.

00:37:42.540 I'm going to say The Magnificent Seven.

00:37:44.760 Incredible.

00:37:45.340 Watched it 10 times.

00:37:46.380 The original one.

00:37:47.000 Yes.

00:37:47.340 With my dad.

00:37:48.120 All right.

00:37:48.420 All right.

00:37:48.660 That's like in my dad's, like, I grew up on John Wayne and war movies.

00:37:52.740 Yeah.

00:37:52.900 Like Magnificent Seven.

00:37:54.220 And that was like, I remember watching it with him.

00:37:55.720 Other than Unforgiven, Magnificent Seven is the greatest Western that's actually originally

00:37:59.460 at a Western.

00:38:00.040 Unforgiven was sort of a modern remake format, but Magnificent Seven is exquisite with, you

00:38:05.600 know, Ewell Brenner and Charles Bronson and James Coburn.

00:38:10.860 Oh, when Mom was out of town, that was one of the movies we watched.

00:38:13.340 Oh, it was so good.

00:38:14.920 It's a fabulous movie.

00:38:17.200 And then I'm going to end with two.

00:38:19.940 Quentin Tarantino.

00:38:21.460 Is it The Inglorious Bastards?

00:38:23.060 Is that where we're going with this?

00:38:24.040 So I'm going to start with Pulp Fiction.

00:38:25.580 Okay.

00:38:26.020 Which is fantastic.

00:38:27.280 And then the last one is Inglorious Bastards.

00:38:28.940 Yep.

00:38:29.460 And I feel bad that I left Reservoir Dogs off because Reservoir Dogs is exquisite too.

00:38:33.980 But the other ones are above, yeah.

00:38:35.340 But if you made me pick two, I go with Pulp Fiction and Inglorious.

00:38:38.900 Inglorious Bastards is a spectacular movie.

00:38:40.520 Spectacular movie.

00:38:41.540 So that's 25 movies, which if you've got some downtime, download them, watch them.

00:38:48.100 You will enjoy them.

00:38:49.080 You will laugh.

00:38:49.900 You will be moved.

00:38:50.860 You will be...

00:38:51.700 And send your critiques on Twitter.

00:38:53.260 Yes.

00:38:53.440 We'll take them.

00:38:54.580 And let me ask you one other question.

00:38:56.240 If you could only take one movie and one TV series to a desert island with you, what would you pick?

00:39:01.740 Only one movie and only one TV series.

00:39:04.400 That's all you got to watch.

00:39:05.980 The Princess Bride and Criminal Minds. 1.00

00:39:07.620 There you go.

00:39:08.480 That's it.

00:39:09.040 Yeah.

00:39:09.440 I like it.

00:39:10.120 See, now we know a little bit more about you.

00:39:12.080 Don't forget we do this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

00:39:13.940 Every once in a while, we get to do something fun like this.

00:39:15.880 So make sure you hit that subscribe or auto-download button.

00:39:18.600 And the center and I will see you back here in a couple of days.

00:39:21.020 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:39:23.740 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 26, 2025

Merry Christmas： The 30 Best Movies of the 21st Century

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