Meet the Two Guys Who Are Doomed to Watch the Same Adam Sandler Film for Eternity
By Dan Ozzi
Sensory bombardment is a form of torture commonly used on prisoners to extract information. Authorities strip prisoners down to their underwear , chain them to a wall, and subject them to the same song at full volume for days—sometimes even weeks. By the 24th hour of "...Baby One More Time," brain and body functions start to slip away, melting the senses into a puddle of nothingness.
Guy Montgomery and Tim Batt probably understand this idea
very well. Every Monday, the two New Zealanders wake up at 9 AM to watch the
Adam Sandler ensemble comedy
Grown Ups 2.
They've done this every week. For 47 weeks. After each viewing, they talk about
the experience on a podcast, appropriately entitled
The Worst Idea of All Time. They need
to see the movie five more times to hit their goal of watching it every week for
a year.
When the duo started the project a year ago, they shared a
healthy but reasonable dislike for the critically panned movie. But over the
last few months, they learned to hate the movie, while also losing their minds.
What started out as 30-minute long discussions about the film's comedic
pitfalls and plot holes turned into extended bouts of maniacal laughter,
existential reflections, and self-loathing.
I recently caught up with Montgomery and Batt to discuss why two
people would voluntarily
watch an Adam Sandler movie 52 times.
VICE: Why did you choose this
movie?
Tim Batt: That's a
good question. We thought of the concept first—of the ludicrousness of watching
a single movie and reviewing it over and over again—and then decided on what
the movie would be. We kicked around a few ideas early on. One of the ones we
floated originally was
Con Air, but
we decided it was too good. I briefly toyed with the idea of
The Room, but that's so bad that it's
enjoyable. Then we thought of the
Grown
Ups
movie because it's such a weird movie. So many funny people are in it,
but it wasn't very well received.
Guy Montgomery: We
thought,
Well, if we're gonna do a movie
that shouldn't have been made, wouldn't it make more sense to do a sequel to
that movie?
Batt: Neither of
us has seen the first.
Would watching the
characters' origin story help you appreciate the sequel?
Batt: I posited
to Guy that maybe
Grown Ups 2 is the
funniest movie ever made but it's all callbacks to the original—though I don't
think that's all that likely.
Montgomery: Grown Ups 1 is now the movie that we crave. You're watching the movie—and this is kind of the definition of insanity—but you're waiting for one of the actors to say a different line or someone else to walk into a scene or just some variation.
What effect does watching
the same movie 52 times have on your brain?
Batt: The first
effect I've noticed recently is that I find it impossible to watch what is in
the focus of the shot now. I can't draw my attention to what the filmmakers
designed me to be looking at. I'm looking at extras, I'm looking at a product
that's been placed on the table. Even if I try now, I can't look at the main
action. I've seen it too many times, and my mind simply can't take it, so I
look at the peripheral.
Montgomery: It's given
me quite intense mood swings. I'll fluctuate wildly between watching a joke
they've written, and five minutes later, I'll be in the pits of despair. We've
been doing this weird roleplaying where we are the film producers. We maintained
character for an hour and then I just snapped.
On the podcast, you've often
expressed concern about going legitimately insane. Do you think that could
happen?
Montgomery: It
certainly gives us access to insanity and flashes of it. Every occasional
watch, the whole concept and project come crashing down, and you're like, "What
the fuck are we doing?"
How does it feel to know
you've seen this movie more than anyone involved in making it probably did?
Montgomery: That feels
fucking fantastic, Dan Ozzi!
Batt: I feel so
honored to be one half of the world record–breaking people.
Montgomery: I don't
envision anyone breaking this world record that we've set. I think it's safe.
If you could go back and
talk to yourselves before you first saw
Grown
Ups 2
, what would you say?
Montgomery: I would
say, "Guy, before you do this, what do you really think about Tim Batt? Because
you are going to spend a lot of time with this guy in a really weird way."
Batt: I don't
think I'd tell him anything. I think the funniest thing to do in that situation
would be to tell him nothing, because there've been some real moments of
psychological, almost philosophical pain for me watching.
Do you wonder what you could
have achieved if you had put your time and efforts into a more useful activity?
Montgomery: I've spent
42 weeks running from that thought.
Batt: Here's the
irony of that: Our total downloads since we've started are approaching around
the 200,000 mark. I totally accept that we spend a lot of time doing the
podcast and that's a fucking stupid way to spend three hours, but it's probably
gained more notoriety than any other thing I've ever done in my life.
What's the movie for
season two?
Batt: There is
no season two.
Montgomery: We've got
a fanbase now, so it'd be stupid to throw it away.
Batt: But that's
why we must!
Montgomery: There's
got to be some sort of podcast.
Batt: You're
doing it on your own, buddy. I want to burn it to the ground.
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