Kyle Brandt

1 sketch, 35 claims, and 16 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

The Rewatchables: ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt (guest)

A Hughes-head who has pushed to cover Weird Science for about five years; loves the quotability, Gary's dad and Chet, and 80s mall and party scenes. Cannot stand Lisa's behavior and the lead's line readings, and is bothered that the Chicago-area setting ignores the 85 Bears.

Stances

  • Weird Science deserves a rewatch and has the best 80s title theme song
  • Downey or Hall should have been the Wyatt/lead pairing
  • Chicago-suburbs Hughes-verse details matter

Humor: Loud riffing and sports-media bits, mapping movie characters onto football players and Chicago sports.

In their words

  • “Bill, I think I saw it when I was maybe eight.” (0:03:40)
  • “I don't know why, but Gary's dad was like the legacy of this movie for us.” (0:10:06)
  • “It drives me nuts that there's no 85 bears in this.” (1:28:56)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

The Rewatchables

Their claims

Showing 1–35 of 35 claims.

  1. theme (theme): Weird Science → Splash. Before Weird Science, the 80s had magical beautiful women appearing to ordinary guys; Splash's mermaid loves Tom Hanks.
    “So before weird science, we have Splash, where there's this beautiful mermaid that comes out of the water and loves Tom Hanks, all right?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:06:40 · Kyle Brandt (0.75 sure it was them)
  2. theme (theme): Weird Science → National Lampoon's Vacation. The red-Ferrari woman who keeps appearing in Vacation is another magical 80s dream woman.
    “You have vacation where like the dorky dad's driving cross country and, 0 my god, in a red Ferrari.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:06:49 · Kyle Brandt (0.70 sure it was them)
  3. theme (theme): Weird Science → Mannequin. Mannequin, a couple years later, is a weirder version of the magical woman who finds the dorky guy; Weird Science is the best known of them.
    “Like these magical women who are almost science fiction, but are so beautiful, come and find the dorky guy, and weird science was right in the middle of that.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:07:06 · Kyle Brandt (0.75 sure it was them)
  4. lineage (lineage): Jonah Hill → Anthony Michael Hall. Jonah Hill's Superbad character is very similar to Anthony Michael Hall's character, almost his son.
    “Jonah Hill's character is very similar to the Anthony Michael Hall character.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:08:04 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  5. craft (craft): Superbad → Weird Science. Both end with the two friends going off with girls separately and reconvening, the friendship being the real subject.
    “Superbat ends with the 2 guys separately going with these girls that they like and then reconvening at the end”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:08:17 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  6. lineage (lineage): Weird Science → WarGames. Both movies are about teenage computer hackers, and both end up with a nuclear missile; Weird Science's kids are more premeditated.
    “I think they're a little bit more premeditated than in war games, but they, ironically, they both end up with a nuclear missile.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:11:14 · Kyle Brandt (0.60 sure it was them)
  7. career (career): John Hughes → Weird Science. Weird Science feels like Hughes heat-checking, coming right after Breakfast Club.
    “Also, the weird science to me feels heat checking for Hughes too.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:16:35 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  8. people (people): John Hughes → Anthony Michael Hall. Hughes loved Hall and pitched the next movie on the Breakfast Club set.
    “He wants to make every movie with him and he's like, I got our next movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:16:54 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  9. lineage (lineage): Weird Science → The Breakfast Club. Gary's girlfriend in Canada is a gag taken from Breakfast Club.
    “Like, that's the thing directly from Breakfast Club.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:17:25 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  10. lineage (lineage): Weird Science → Planes, Trains and Automobiles. The Hughes-verse crosses over; the insurance seminar joke is also in Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
    “Neil Page talks about insurance seminars and plane strains and automobiles.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:17:31 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  11. industry (industry): Stanley Kubrick → John Hughes. Kubrick loved John Hughes movies, which is why he wanted Hall.
    “So Stanley Kubrick, for some reason, love John Hughes movies.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:21:53 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  12. what-if (what-if): Anthony Michael Hall → Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick, a Hughes fan, wanted Hall as Joker and negotiated for over half a year.
    “decided he wanted Anthony Michael Hall in full metal jacket.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:21:57 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  13. what-if (what-if): Matthew Modine → Full Metal Jacket. After Hall did not take Joker, the role went to Modine.
    “and he went to Modine.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:22:14 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  14. people (people): Kelly LeBrock → Steven Seagal. LeBrock met Seagal around 86 or 87, before he was a movie star, and they were married over a decade.
    “She meets Steven Seagal around 87 when he's going from like stunt trainer right above...”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:27:15 · Kyle Brandt (0.45 sure it was them)
  15. industry (industry): Weird Science → The Breakfast Club. Anthony Michael Hall's Pryor-style drunk scene was test-driven in The Breakfast Club, so execs wanted more of it in the next movie.
    “They, uh, they soft tested the Richard Pryor too.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:35:31 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  16. craft (craft): Weird Science → Poltergeist. The party-scene effects, objects moving around the living room, hold up like Poltergeist.
    “like poltergeist.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:50:19 · Kyle Brandt (0.35 sure it was them)
  17. theme (theme): Weird Science → Risky Business. The parents-away-and-clean-up-before-they-return trope runs through Weird Science, Risky Business and Adventures in Babysitting.
    “Adventures and babysitting, risky business.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:50:32 · Kyle Brandt (0.40 sure it was them)
  18. career (career): Vanessa Angel → Dumb and Dumber. The TV Lisa, Vanessa Angel, was also in Dumb and Dumber.
    “They made a TV series in the mid 90s with Vanessa Angel as Lisa.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:51:48 · Kyle Brandt (0.45 sure it was them)
  19. career (career): Kim Malin → Die Hard. The piano girl's second credit is the Die Hard hostage found with a goon.
    “she's the hostage that Hans Gruber's Goon find having sex back in the office”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:53:36 · Kyle Brandt (0.45 sure it was them)
  20. contrast (contrast): Kim Malin → John Cazale. Kim Malin's three unnamed-character credits are pitched as a triple crown, against Cazale's five perfect credits.
    “So John Kazeo is the best 5 movie IMDb run.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:54:14 · Kyle Brandt (0.40 sure it was them)
  21. lineage (lineage): Wayne's World → The Doors. Wayne's World 2 depends on knowing Oliver Stone's The Doors, as Weird Science depends on knowing The Road Warrior.
    “We talked a lot about Wayne's World 2 and we're like, it's very, very dependent on knowing Oliver Stone's the Doors movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:07:39 · Kyle Brandt (0.60 sure it was them)
  22. lineage (lineage): Mad Max 2 → Mad Max. The Road Warrior is the sequel to Mad Max.
    “which is like the sequel to Mad Max.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:07:47 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  23. contrast (contrast): Weird Science → St. Elmo's Fire. St. Elmo's Fire has a title song but does not work the plot in.
    “But it doesn't really work the plot into it.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:11:47 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  24. contrast (contrast): Weird Science → Purple Rain. Purple Rain's song barely advances the plot; it is just Prince kicking ass with a song.
    “It's just basically him kicking ass with a song.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:12:33 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  25. contrast (contrast): Weird Science → Against All Odds. Against All Odds is the speaker's stealth entry, circled a couple times on the pod.
    “we're going stealth against all odds.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:12:45 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  26. contrast (contrast): Weird Science → Footloose. The best 80s theme song with the movie's title in it: Footloose is the finalist opposing Weird Science, but Loggins wrote it first and the title followed.
    “I feel like Loggins did Footloose.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:14:27 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  27. contrast (contrast): Thomas Dolby → Weird Science. Dolby is joked to be the biggest loser of the title-song debate because his own science song came two years later.
    “Thomas Dolby, who 2 years later did, she blinded me with science.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:14:52 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  28. career (career): John Kapelos → The Breakfast Club. Kapelos plays Dino here and the custodian in The Breakfast Club.
    “Yeah, I mean, he's the custodian in the Breakfast Club.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:18:17 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  29. what-if (what-if): William Zabka → Weird Science. Zabka should have been the bully against Hall in Weird Science, as in all the 80s movies.
    “Like Zabka just should have been in all these movies.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:20:36 · Kyle Brandt (0.40 sure it was them)
  30. what-if (what-if): Tom Cruise → Weird Science. Cruise would have been a Wyatt, though the pick was early-80s Cruise or Losing It Cruise.
    “Cruise is Wyatt, like early 80s cruise, like outsiders cruise?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:25:34 · Kyle Brandt (0.40 sure it was them)
  31. lineage (lineage): Chris Columbus → Steven Spielberg. The closest Hughes and Spielberg crossed was Spielberg protege Chris Columbus directing Home Alone.
    “Chris Columbus was a Spielberg protégé and he ended up directing Home Alone.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:26:38 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  32. what-if (what-if): Steven Spielberg → John Hughes. Movie swap: Spielberg directs Weird Science and Hughes directs The Goonies, which he produced.
    “I would have Spielberg direct, weird science, and I would have Hughes direct, uh, the Goonies, which he produced”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:26:44 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  33. programming (programming): Weird Science → Mannequin. Kyle's double feature pick is Mannequin, another magical-woman 80s movie.
    “I'm doing Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrell, nothing's going to stop us now.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:40:14 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  34. industry (industry): Weird Science → The Breakfast Club. Making Weird Science was reportedly the condition for Hughes being allowed to make The Breakfast Club.
    “this was how he was allowed to make the Breakfast Club if he also agreed.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:44:13 · Kyle Brandt (0.40 sure it was them)
  35. industry (industry): Weird Science → Pretty in Pink. Hughes just wanted to finish Weird Science fast so he could make Pretty in Pink.
    “So he's just trying to get through this because he wants to make pretty and pink.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:44:22 · Kyle Brandt (0.40 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 1–16 of 16 fun items.

  1. fun, about Gary's dad: Kyle's friend group quoted 'who's this camp character you keep talking about' for 12 years when a friend disappeared into a relationship; Gary's dad is the legacy of the movie for them.
    “I don't know why, but Gary's dad was like the legacy of this movie for us.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:10:06 · Kyle Brandt (0.70 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Anthony Michael Hall: Stanley Kubrick negotiated with Hall for Joker in Full Metal Jacket for more than half a year before it fell through.
    “They negotiated for over half a year.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:22:11 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Saturday Night Live season 11: The 85 season opened with a drug-test sketch that has been erased from the internet.
    “The opening sketch of the entire season is Lauren Michaels giving the cast a drug test.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:26:03 · Kyle Brandt (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Kelly LeBrock: Bill's theory: playing a perfect person made her want someone who thinks he is perfect, hence Steven Seagal.
    “And my theory is that she has to play like a perfect person and like that's that's tough to get over.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:27:58 · Kyle Brandt (0.40 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Roger Ebert: The Ebert-review bit: Ebert gave it 3 stars after a tough week; Kyle guesses Ebert wished he could make a woman too.
    “I never met Roger Ebert, but I'd venture to guess that there's a point in his life he wish he could have made a woman”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:31:19 · Kyle Brandt (0.60 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Weird Science: The sleepover scene: kids rewound the computer-rendered chest-enlarging moment; the scarcity of nude images in the 80s made it a scrambled-porn apex mountain.
    “This is a scrambled porn apex mountain.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:34:14 · Kyle Brandt (0.30 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Kyle Brandt: Kyle was asked many times to do The Challenge and always said no.
    “I got asked many, many, many times.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:38:59 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Robert Downey Jr.: Downey told Howard Stern he and Rusler joked about leaving a deposit in a trailer and did it in a female castmate's trailer, not LeBrock's.
    “He admitted they eventually did it in one female cast member's trailer, but it was not Kelly LeBrock.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:47:24 · Kyle Brandt (0.65 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Kim Malin: The Kim Malin run: three IMDb credits, none with a name; proposed as a new category.
    “borderline new category, the Kim Malin, your best 3 IMDb category, just with no context.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:53:16 · Kyle Brandt (0.35 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Anthony Michael Hall: Hall's stunned double take is held three or four seconds.
    “the Anthony Michael Hall stunned double take.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 0:55:04 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Ilan Mitchell-Smith: He was 15 and a half when he filmed the extended kiss with LeBrock; Kyle wanted an apex mountain of uncomfortable kisses (Cape Fear, Blank Check).
    “I was going to do an apex mountain for uncomfortable kisses.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:03:37 · Kyle Brandt (0.55 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Weird Science: Kyle ranks its party scene, with the mansion, lake, magic food and bartenders, the number one high school party in any decade.
    “This is number one high school party movie in any decade.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:24:46 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Weird Science: The Chicago-suburbs nitpick: the 85 Bears are nowhere in the movie.
    “It drives me nuts that there's no 85 bears in this.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:28:56 · Kyle Brandt (0.70 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Cameron's house is in Lake Forest, near the Bears and Bulls facilities, five minutes from Michael Jordan's.
    “I know where Cameron Fry's house is.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:31:17 · Kyle Brandt (0.60 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Weird Science: The Playboy-trunk souvenir wish.
    “My souvenir bill will be, uh, Wyatt's incredible full ass treasure chest of Playboys.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:38:45 · Kyle Brandt (0.50 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Kelly LeBrock: She calls Hard to Kill 'hard to watch'.
    “She refers to hard to kill that movie if you ask her, but she refers to it as hard to watch.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Weird Science’ With Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt · 1:41:37 · Kyle Brandt (0.45 sure it was them)