On the 50th Anniversary of The Godfather, C&B Talk Movies and More

BUCK: I also just wanted to just get your quick take, Clay, on the 50th anniversary, we are told, of the Godfather.

CLAY: Yeah, what a movie.

BUCK: It’s funny, my parents, I think both of them would say without a moment’s hesitation that the two best movies of all time are the Godfather Part One and the Godfather Part Two. I don’t know how many in the audience would share that sentiment right away. For me, it’s Braveheart, but that’s a whole other discussion. You go where on the Godfather? The greatest movie of all time? Top five movies of all time?

CLAY: I think it’s phenomenal. I love your Braveheart take. I think it partly, when you classify… First of all, 50 years. It’s amazing that it’s been 50 years since that movie was made. I think partly it factors in, are you talking about a movie that you watch and you recognize as incredible? Because Citizen Kane, for instance. I can watch Citizen Kane and recognize, “My God, this thing is incredible.”

BUCK: I’m such a savage. I fell asleep watching Citizen Kane.

CLAY: Oh, Citizen Kane I think is incredible.

BUCK: I can’t tell a lie.

CLAY: But I wouldn’t want to watch Citizen Kane every day, right? So there’s a difference between a movie that you recognize as phenomenal and a movie that you would watch every time it’s on. So, for me, I would rather rank movies that I would watch every time they’re on, and balance that out with elite-level moviedom, for a lack of a better way to describe it.

BUCK: What is the movie you’ve rewatched the most of all time?

CLAY: Probably… Well, because my kids now factor in, so we have watched —

BUCK: No. It doesn’t count with the kids. No cartoons or anything like that.

CLAY: It doesn’t count with the kids? I’ve watched probably The Christmas Story because it’s on every holiday season. Elf. A lot of those holiday movies. The one that I would say, if you told me, “Hey, if you could only watch one more movie, what movie would you watch?” I probably would go with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I think that might be —

BUCK: That’s solid. I’d have to say the first Ghostbusters, first Ghostbusters.

CLAY: First Ghostbusters is amazing. You watched the Ghostbusters Afterlife that I told you wasn’t too bad.

BUCK: It was like a solid gentleman’s B-plus-ish.

CLAY: Way better than the girl Ghostbusters.

BUCK: Which was an F. Yes.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: Yeah. So it was like a watchable. I kind of enjoyed it. By the way, I did a quick poll here of our NYC producers, Greg, Ali, Mike, they all said Godfather, top five of all time.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: They put it top five.

CLAY: I think it’s top five. The movie that I would watch, if I only had to watch one, I think Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is absolutely phenomenal.

BUCK: Wait. Better than Raiders of the Lost Ark, Travis? Really?

CLAY: Way better than Raiders of the Lost Ark.

BUCK: Wow, I don’t know.

CLAY: You’ve gotta go back and watch it again. I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark… It’s the movie I saw eight times in the theater, when I was a little kid. You know, they used to leave movies on for like six months back in the day. Remember that? When they had a successful movie. You could go again and again and again all through the summer and on into the fall. But I would say, The Last Crusade. The movies I’ve watched the most honestly, are probably the Star Wars movies. Because I’ve got to watch them with the kids. The Back to the Futures. The Goonies of the world are phenomenal.

BUCK: Gladiator is amazing.

CLAY: Oh, Gladiator is one of… Is Gladiator 20 years?

BUCK: It came out in 2000. It won Best Picture in 2000.

CLAY: Yeah. So in the last 20 years, I would say Gladiator is probably one of the best movies I’ve seen, just in terms of how well it’s been done.

BUCK: I also think that Russell Crowe was fantastic in Master and Commander, which —

CLAY: Yeah. Good movie.

BUCK: — is an under the radar war movie. There’s nothing like that from the great age of ships. There’s no movie quite as good as Master and Commander.

CLAY: Russell Crowe had a run there, of like six or seven years, because A Beautiful Mind was also a phenomenal movie.

BUCK: Yeah, he got to the point where he thought he could throw a telephone at somebody’s head without consequence in New York City. It turned out that wasn’t true.

CLAY: He also got so bad at movies that he decided he wanted to do music. He decided he wanted to have a music career. I feel like some of those guys get bored if they’re so talented in acting, and they decide they want to do something else. It might be direct. It might be produce.

BUCK: Shaq had a hip hop career for a while. Now, that’s sports. But he clearly wanted to expand his talents beyond.

CLAY: You know the most famous Shaq song ever? This isn’t the real title. “My Biological Didn’t Bother.” It was about how his biological father. That was the title of the song.

BUCK: Are you serious? I’ve never heard of that.

CLAY: Yeah. Shaq was raised by his stepfather, because his biological didn’t bother. He also had an album.

BUCK: He was also, I believe, in Kazaam.

CLAY: That’s right.

BUCK: He had a movie career as well.

CLAY: Multi-platform.

BUCK: He’s a multi-platform threat you could say.

CLAY: Who is the best multi-platform threat in America today?

BUCK: Oh, my gosh.

CLAY: I’ll give you my answer. I know my answer and you can think about it. I’ve got two. Justin Timberlake. Jamie Foxx. Two most talented people in terms of being able to do everything. Music, acting.

BUCK: Agreed. Wanted to dislike Justin Timberlake, because of the whole Jessica Biel situation, but he’s also good in the movies.

CLAY: (laughing) The Social Network, he’s phenomenal in. He’s really, really good. And Jamie Foxx is obviously incredible as an actor and a performer.

BUCK: He’s good at stand-up too. Obviously, I’m not about to be a professional athlete anytime soon. But of the communications, I think I’d be better off trying to be an actor, Clay, than trying to do comedy. Full-on stand-up comedy is really hard.

CLAY: Oh, I would way rather do stand-up than act. I can’t act.

BUCK: I’m sorry. I asked Clay about movies, and we just started talking.