Strange Aeons Radio

110 GUNS! GUNS! GUNS!

March 11, 2021 Strange Aeons Radio Season 3 Episode 110
Strange Aeons Radio
110 GUNS! GUNS! GUNS!
Show Notes Transcript

110 GUNS! GUNS! GUNS!

The gang talks Joss Whedon, vaccinations, and the Second Amendment. Films include Boss Level, Raya and the Last Dragon, and WandaVision. 


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Oh, sorry, did I break your concentration? Somewhere between science and superstition? To show you Strange Aeons. Welcome to Strange Aeons radio. That's Eric over there. That's Vanessa over there. Good evening. I'm Kelly. Hey, Vanessa. Your mom got her first shot. And coincidentally, I had my first shot. Just before you got here. Did you really Don Julio 1942 went down. My mom doesn't drink. I get this one in one hour. That's upsetting. Actually, she got her second so she's fully it will and I guess two weeks she'll be good to go. She can go raving fans shouldn't go to spring break and like get crazy time, right? Absolutely. You keep bringing home all these beats. He just hand them to you. Know, I'm extremely excited for it. She's She's very much in the age bracket. Um, but yeah, got her lined up, got her shoved in. Yeah, she's also helped. Now I can go to the grocery store and not cry. So just Sweden has been in the news a lot lately, you guys, and I thought it'd be interesting to discuss whether or not we believe the myth of the Hollywood feminist might be dead. Finally. Man, I lost a lot of faith in the world. Not Not so long ago, because of Mr. Wheaton. I feel so mad at myself, actually, because his wife had put out that public letter, like five years ago, maybe longer. And I remember reading it and thinking I just have some personal thing. Like it's obviously like, this is between them. It's their relationship. I don't know. And now I'm like, What the fuck is wrong with me? Like she like she was straight up like Yo, everybody this be who he be? And we're like, but he's just sweet. And we love you. And now I'm like, Well, fuck charisma and Sarah and like the chick who plays Tara and I'm the girl who plays fucking dawn. Yeah, and I think he's sexually verted himself to those people. But the fact that they were all like he's toxic. garbage. It's not good. Would you say that? I mean, it's nice to pretend that you're a feminist if you're not because it almost means the same thing. If if you just do what you should be doing professionally. Yeah. But the fact that charisma didn't feel comfortable coming out at the time this was happening, right and that everybody else on the show was seeing stuff like this and didn't feel the need to say anything. Or maybe not the need but but felt, you know, the repercussion could be I no longer have a job. Yeah. Do we then finally, I think that this, this happens in Hollywood, constantly. Hollywood has been making movies about how awful Hollywood is, since all that stuff. So part of me is like, Look, if you get into this career, you have to maybe not be okay with it. But not be surprised by it, sir. And do we finally now? Because Joss was just so he was held so high? Yeah. Do we stop and say, Okay, can we stop putting human beings on pedestals because, Vanessa, you're a lovely human being? Eric, you're probably the nicest person in the world. I know. And I guarantee you, there's someone out there who thinks you're the biggest soul on the planet, because we all have that in us for a little bit or a lot or whatever. My my whole thing is, I can't be canceled because I never pretended to be a nice person in the first place. So anybody who tells you how awful I am, you're gonna be able to go. Yeah, that tracks. Yeah. But he pretended to be somebody. Yeah. And I think that there's, I've I've definitely come to a place with people as a whole, where I've no longer listen to what they've said. I've watched what they've done. And if somebody's saying I'm, I've, I believe in voting rights or I believe in women's rights women's should be on set. I think vo C's should be on set. Well, did they hire PCs or their PCs? leads? Do they support women? Have they given money or showed up at an event or, you know, actions are where it's at I think that Joss definitely spoke a big talk and I guess because he had a show with several shows with female leads, people were apt to believe him but i don't know i don't think you'd like. I think that people who abuse systems will be the first ones to say they are the solution for those systems. down I agree with that. I remember on the set of our film Eric was arguing to get more women on there and more women crew and I was like, look at this. Oh my god no on a dry vote. Hey, man, when I slippery slope when I became a landowner, I was like, Oh, I finally I finally I get to wear pants. This is extremely exciting for me now I might get shot in the street, but it's worth it. I think part of the problem is assuming it's just Hollywood stuff. We hear about those because they're in the news. They're what people talk about the my brush with sexist, I guess problems was when I was working retail at suncoast. I know Kelly's heard this story, probably a few times. But I was promoted to manager at the store and I walk in the door my first day. And they're like, you have to fire this employee. He's been complained about by three. Three women in the store like freaking there's only three women working in the store. Five people in the store is all so day one. I had to fire somebody for sexual harassment. He was a creepy dude, too. Oh, so this was a real? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You're gonna tell me this. Somehow you're gonna twist this story and find out that it all been all the made. Oh, my God. No, no. No, no. You met him at one point we shot something with him at your house ages ago. Your old house. I don't remember what we're shooting. But he he did. been long enough. nobody's talking about 30 years, probably. But he he did High School video, he would do high school football games. And he came up to me one time when I'm working. Like I do those high school games like yeah, another camera. I shoot the cheerleaders. You want to see that video? No, I really don't. So it wasn't a big surprise. When I was told I had to fire this particular individual. When effective media I walked in they said, This is what he's owed, pull it out of the tail, give it to him and walk him out the door my day. Oh, my God. I mean, like, I think you're right. I think it's in all industries. And during the me to movement, a lot of women came out of the hotel industry was like, Yeah, like it's everywhere. And it's just any time in which there is a power play in action. It's gonna exist and it and the easy ones or whether isn't the power dynamic and action where it's just like, that guy's creepy. Okay, great. No problem. We can take care of that. No big shakes. But if it's my high school teacher that something then it's like, oh, well, you're just lying because he gave you an F. Oh, man. Right. Do you have another fun story? Junior High? Yes. Junior High. Good old O'Leary, Twin Falls, Idaho. There was a teacher there who apparently he was one of those teachers that all the girls liked. fairly good looking guy. Until Apparently, he was having an affair with one of the students. They're in junior high. Oh my god. The parents found out about it and moved out of town. Yeah. And he followed them. Oh, my God. And subsequently was arrested and you know, kinda, yeah, no, I've heard that. I mean, I've heard that exact story. When I was working with real girls, we had a student who had experienced something very similar. And she was under 16. So it's just like, what the you I know, it's all I mean, I remember in swim team, there was this kid who used to show up and take pictures of us. And I remember my friend, Marianne who's like, She's like a feminist her core whether or not she wants to be she just can't help it. She like got out of the pool, walked over to him start screaming at him, like grabbing his camera, like yelling it and then yelling at the coaches and saying why the fuck is this guy allowed to sit here and take pictures of us in our swimsuits? And everyone I remember at the time everyone's like, God was Maryann's deal that That girl is such a bitch. Yep. And that's like what you get That's what you get for saying hey, I'm calling out on this person. Yeah, I'm really enjoying this dynamic. I really enjoyed your story but being such a bitch You know, it's I mean like look, I i've under I've seen it on set. I've complained about onset, almost did walk off of us that oh wow from stuff like this and and then I was asked to politely returned aside so and it would be quote unquote taken care of so like I don't know what to it exists like ramping lay and like I said if if you're more if you're wondering about the people around you just look at what they do, just close your ears and open your eyes and just see what they do and that'll tell you everything you need to know about him. Well, I'm keeping my mouth shut from now on. The other thing I wanted to share with you guys you know how sometimes we have arguments about stuff? Well, I decided to keep a log here. Oh my god. This book says my list of things I was right about all I'll be noting that I see the blank right now. I just got the book. Number one fidessa complaint. I was right. I just bought it. So I hadn't heard anything that started it at 100 volume to you guys. I did a Frank Grillo double feature this well. Did you? I did. Eric. I know you've seen one of these movies. Okay. Boss level, which is on a map. I just ran across that like two hours ago. I was flipping through something that is such a cool movie. Yes. It is. I guess I would describe it like Groundhog's Day meets Deadpool. That's good. Guns and comedy and ridiculousness and it's a time loop. And it's got Mel Gibson in it as well. Okay. And he's savior he know isn't anti semitic rants, he doesn't deny the Holocaust or call a cop sugar tits even once. Oh my god. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm pretty. You know what? I'm proud. Anybody stand up and give him a little pause right now. We go. Well, he was he was very good at it. He's got a very small part. And he kind of plays the kind of role I think he's going to continue to be able to do if he keeps acting movies where he's complete back round. And then the the second or the second part of that devil feature was called cosmic sin, which is Frank Grillo and Bruce. Why am I blanking on diehards name? Well, as well as Thank you. Wow. Now and there's no reason you should Yeah, it's brand now What the hell happened to Bruce Willis? Man, he's got a mortgage. Oh, sure. What the hell is that? Well, it sounds like my neighbors are vacuuming the walls again. It sounds like there's liquid inside their backyard. Like the sea is being vacuum. Yeah, I thought you're sinking back again. But maybe worse. We do have an advantage with these mics is their range is lower. So hopefully it won't pick it up as much as the other one. Well, that's what I watched. I would say this. Eric and I actually got a would you call it Eric a maverick. didn't mean that. Boss level. So we saw quite a while ago. And it's one I will watch again. Now that it is available on Hulu. And I suggest anyone who likes action adventure. It's filthy. So there's that but that's true. And then just pass on cosmic said. Sure. After that last Bruce Willis when I watched I can't remember what it was. But it was just awful. Yeah. Not just though this isn't any good. It was just flat out bad. I think the last five minutes was bad, including like diehard seven or whatever. Like Chernobyl versus man. Good movie. I don't think I've seen that one. If he punches, you know, radiation in the face and wins. You know, you're in too deep. Do you see anything better than that? Well, so I checked out a film. And it was actually on my friend's Plex. I don't know how you get a hold of it, but it was called tone deaf. Which is a nice little horror film. Yeah, a girl is tone deaf and does not play the piano well, but no one has the guts to tell her that she sucks. She gets dumped by her boyfriend decides to go to an Airbnb. She's She's very much a hipster, millennial hipster and maybe even a younger than millennial hipster. And the guy who she gets Airbnb from has reached that point in his life where he's decided he really wants to go ahead and experience murder. decided to become a serial killer now that his his children are grown. His wife is passed on and you know, he's ready up. With a hobby and her father who's deceased, visits her and dreams a lot and he's played by the data and Twin Peaks Ray wise. Yeah, very wise. And he's extremely good. It had a good promise and it was sold to me as being like fucking hilarious. Amazing. I thought it was fine. Because the the tone deafness come into the story, um, because she's tone deaf. Yeah, but does she use that somehow to it's just like this ongoing joke? Oh, it's just a constant ongoing joke. Is this a comedy? It's a comedy horror. Okay. Yeah, yep, yep. So yeah. I recommend if you like comedy horror to check it out, because you'll probably love it. I just did not get in comedy. I'm not the right audience or any of them. I have no humor. I have no humor. I'm the most humorless son of a gun. Speaking of, I guess it was kind of humor Farsi. I watched one of those pop up on Amazon movies. Killer sofa. Oh my god. I think I feel like I've heard of this one. No, I've heard killer backpack. Yeah, watch that one. Do Is this new. 2019. Okay. Yeah, again. Surprising, actually, I was expecting a repeat of something like killer backpack or the death bed the bed that eats up but it was not. It was ludicrous, sir. It's and I don't know if maybe it was a camera, what country it came from? Who was us or another country? Because it's not a sofa. It's like a lazy boy. Chair. I don't know. Maybe some other country calls those sofas, but it has two little button eyes, you know, kind of in the middle. Oh my god and Peewee Herman Yeah, yes. And the the legend is there's this one woman in the movie, who everybody obsesses over and the legend comes out that that's like the line of her family. All the women in her family have had obsession problems. It's actually a Jewish demon. Everybody talks about golems. But this actually is a different legend. Jewish legend. This is the devic that we're talking about. Yeah, that's a possession movie. Yeah. And it possesses a sofa. And it kills people and does stuff and it's it's actually surprisingly decent. It's not great. And it could be that my ex space expectations are killer backpack level which I had one good scene, but you know what? actually worth watching. Yeah, I remember rubber having that effect on me. I was like, You know what? Not completely awful. It was nowhere near that weird was actually a very straightforward story at all. Yeah, but that well, rubber was really weird. Yeah. The fans watching from the desert that followed him around watching it like it was a live action movie or something. I don't even remember that part. I must have blocked it out. I remember getting stuck in the swimming pool. But you know, maybe it's because I enjoy bro number a movies now that this seems better than it? Maybe it is. But I don't know. I enjoyed it. And it was really, really silly. I'll check that out. Because also on my watch list is slacks that just showed up on shettar pair of jeans. I have we've run out of ideas as a race of this name by the people who did turbo cut towhid. Are you serious? I mean, I watched the preview and I was like, oh, okay, I'm putting this on my watch. Okay, secondary question. Does the filmmakers have to the filmmakers have killer turbo kid whenever they run out of ideas? Wow. I'm just wondering. It happens mental. It happens to us all. And just putting it out there. I watched another movie. Yes. Riah and the last dragon. Oh, I came out of nowhere. How would you think it would be? I mean, it's a Disney movie. So there's a 65% chance it's okay. I loved it Really? Happy. The dragon is voiced by Aquafina. I don't know who this is, but I don't particularly like her voice. Okay. But she's a memo, a lot of strange stuff. She has one kind of zone. She's sort of placed the same thing. That might have been Yeah, I thought that she was the weak link in this. But everything else I really, really loved. I'm sure that it is on some list of offending somebody. Sure. You know, some kind of course cultural appropriation went on somewhere, I'm sure. But I really really enjoyed it. And I mean, Disney. Watch that with my mom. I'll put that on the list. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's one of those. It's it's a feel good movie. Yeah. Nice. Very cool. So I finished up watching a wonder vision, because we've all seen. Yeah, we've all Yeah, good. Okay, so yeah, I finished watching one division was, I really loved it. I mean, overall, as the whole series goes, I was definitely blown away. And then I proceeded to watch Infinity War, because I was trying to remember what happens in Infinity War versus endgame. And every single thing I remembered was only from infinity or, like, doesn't the whole thing and with the battle in Wakanda, and my friend was like, No, that's just an infinity war. I was like, Are you sure? Because then they like, you know, they're trying to like rewrite vision and like, and then the, and then the, and they're like, yeah, and then us and snap and Emily. Wait, what happens in game? So I now have to rewatch a game because I know I'm like I kind of vaguely remember. I've seen both of them three times in the theater. hope she's I know this is Marvel, black hole in my brain for Marvel movies, but one division was great, and I had a enjoyable time. Did you guys like it? What What were your overall feelings? Well, Eric's man crush got weepy online about it. Ivan Smith cried. I think if it's Marvel, and something happens he or Star Wars. I thought it was just fine. No tears were shed here. But I liked it. I didn't love what they did with Quicksilver with Phl. I was kind of disappointed in the end with what they're where they landed. But I do recall that Jimmy woo said the entire reason they had found out about Westview is the name of the town was Westfield, Westfield was because they had a witness go offline. And now I'm like, could could he have been because he still had the super speeds? Yeah. And that Agatha didn't give him the superspeed I feel like there's something more going on. And I hope there's something more going on. Because I think that there, that's just too strong of an idea that I just can't stand the idea that like they just lost it. And he's just some bro. Right? Who was like an actor with I didn't understand the headshots thing like, Did he apply to Agatha to be like, Oh, can I? Can you brainwash me? I would, I would think that I mean, Marvel has got all this dialed in so tightly. Now they think that they would be like, we can't do this. Yeah, there's the only my only disappointment with the choices is that having now delved a little bit further into the comics, I mean, there's like 100 years worth of stuff. So I can't say that I know much. What I do know is that Agatha is a good kind of guy. Because she trains her to do everything. And she's overall seen as being like, on the side of good. So that was very confusing to me, because I kept waiting for her to be like, and I'm going to train you and I'm going to show you how to use things or I'm going to show you how to use this, to turn it into something else. And instead it was like, actually, I'm just a Haha, bad guy. Oh, yeah, I think she shows. I think when she originally shows up, she's a bad guy. And then something happens where they kind of where she talks to her where she points out You are the Scarlet which I think is sort of, then they started to rotate her back towards the protector as opposed to the well I was talking about in the comics like in the 60s when Ava Harkness she was a villain and then something and she was an old lady. Yeah, she went all in and then something happened where she ended up being like the you know, I don't want to say the babysitter, but yeah, she really was Mickey for Rocky, like, well, she's mentor but I mean, when when they have their kids, she's kind of the the mother in law that comes in and takes care of the kids while they're off adventuring. Oh, interesting. I know that there was something that happens where she dies and comes back from when I was reading the lore. So that might be part of it. Like she comes back does sound like a comic book thing to me though? Well, there's a lot of there's a lot of branches and a lot of stuff out there. Wikipedia is just not useful enough. I think it's funny that you went and did that because after that finish, I went on a crazy Marvel rewatch thing and I watched like, I am in two and three Avengers Age of Ultron. And game the Infinity War and game, Captain America and America Civil War and all this stuff. And there were a lot of those movies that I thought were so so that I've watched now and I was like what was wrong with me civil war? wars. Yeah, but I didn't like it when it came out, saying I hated Civil War when I first now and yeah and now I'm like sexual pretty good. Like man What was I thinking? Yeah and I do understand why I had probably a hard time remembering Infinity War because there's just so much going on simultaneously that I was like, and I'm going to forgive myself on this one because I'm like at the end of the movie I don't remember what's happened. What's happening? Oh, well wait what why Star Lord here? Gotta start off at 20 some odd Marvel movies again. That's right, Thor doze off to sun start a son and then all the thing and then gets burnt and then what? And then Oh, that's right. Groot does give his arm to become a handle. By the way, I also watched a re watched Thor dark world and that sucked as much as I thought. Oh God, I remember going and seeing that in the theater in London like getting off work going straight to the movie theater sitting down, falling asleep 10 minutes and waking up not being any more impressed going back to sleep. That movie was just no good. Yeah, that was not not not the best Thor movie by a longshot. I haven't yet to consciously make my way through that movie. Nice. Okay, well, now for something completely completely different. Yes, yes. One that I'd wanted to see for a long time and somehow kept missing. I go to watch it and pop out of away from whoever was streaming it or get in trouble. shutter started showing the devil's the Oliver Reed Vanessa Redgrave 73 years and watch this till recently. And I you know, because had I never seen it. And Damn, it's a the, its lore is so strong or the legend of how and maybe it's because you know, I'm not Catholic, or, but it intensity was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a lot more over the top. Although when it goes over the top, it goes almost comedically over the top as part of the problem. Did you like it? Yeah. I thought I was gonna get a lot more out of it than I did. I think that this is one that I had always been wanting to watch. And I had heard so much about and then watching it. I was like, No, no, I mean, Oliver Reed was fucking great. That's what I liked about it the most easily, easily. I didn't even recognize Vanessa Redgrave until maybe, you know, 10 minutes from the end. I was like, Oh, yeah, that's Vanessa Redgrave. Okay, I was wondering where she's been this entire movie cheese, the secondary lead. Although I'd have to say one of my favorite parts was when the king gave them the vial of Christ's blood. I thought that was a hell of a jab. That's like it. First of all, I guess I wanted it to be like overtly supernatural or something. And then at the end, I was kind of like, what did you expect? Well, I can't think of a Ken Russell movie that I have liked. If I'm being honest. Ken Russell is one of those guys who I directory so I I enjoy their films, his films, liking them is probably a stretch. I find him an interesting filmmaker, and I enjoy watching what he does, but I don't think I can't think of a single one of his movies. I've watched more than once. Yeah. I wonder if like having grown up Catholic if I would have a different impression of this on you guys, but possibly, yeah, it's hard to know. Available now on shutter Hey, yo, I added it to my queue. I think the thing that was also disappointing was I had heard that the ending was something much different than what the ending was. And I was like, Where's the gigantic orgy? Yeah, isn't the trailer maybe the trailer gives a hint that something else happens because I remember thinking like it's super fucking crazy over the top madness movie. Well, it made me wonder if we were watching a edited for TV version or so I mean, obviously not because, yes, certainly some seats in there that I was like, Oh, my guess is I would think some some people would see that scene like I was referencing with the blood comes out where the nuns are all running around, and might call that an orgy. Oh, like a like everyone's in an intense emotional state. Yeah, I mean, there's some sex going on, but there's not a lot but I also thought the that church or hot building, whatever that thing they built was really impressive. I'm glad I finally was able to see it. But yeah, it was like I just said with any other one of his movies, I I don't think I own any of his films. And I probably maybe if Yeah, down the line. Severin or shopfactory comes out with a really cool heavy box set full of cool stuff. Maybe, but I don't revisit his films very much. What are some well known 10 layer the white worm, probably is best known from Oh, and be his best film. Yeah, still not very good. I feel like yeah, I've heard his name many times, but I have no idea. I don't think I've seen a movie called whore that he called his reaction to Pretty Woman. Oh, God, and it was I think that might be its worst movie. is if I was supposed to be this is what being a hooker is really lies like, it's really just strange sexual place. sex workers. Apologize to all the hackers out there. Hey, Vanessa, you know, how many orgies that were in the devil's zero. Done. Oh, it's so sad. Why don't we take a break? Non jerks ladies and gentlemen non jerks. Well, he did have one you might like altered states. Oh, shall we? I do too. Because it's a it's a linear story with an ending that kind of makes sense. Yeah, kind of. But yeah, he's done a lot of freaking movies. But anyways, break. Sure. Yeah, let's take a break. Get all our non orgy notes together and we're talking about none orgies when we get back. Wait, wait, I didn't research them. We'll be right back. Your squad is ready for you to lead them through with Johnny seven. Oh, ma you charge. Five but Johnny. Watch out. We really are Michelle fire in the tank rockin Johnny sevens got him on the run. Johnny fires qualifying arrival. Tommy got a cat firing with Johnny 701 man. It's seven guns in one. Let's count him. On the gun. Gun. Firing rifle. Honey gun bunker gun firing. There's no other gun right? It can be sure. Johnny seven oh ma Oh, one man on a bike topper. We have returned. And this is my sub genre. I chose Second Amendment. And before we get into this, I'll just let you know that I am a gun owner. Oh, I am a multiple gun owner. Oh my god, where are they don't tell me they're in the oven. The microwave, look in the refrigerator and and I believe in gun control laws and learning how to use a firearm and researching all of that stuff. So I will just say that I got the gun because of my neighbors. Then when I started going to the range and getting fairly decent at it, I ended up really liking it realizing I was pretty good at it. So then I bought a different gun than about a different gun. And I was like, I want to get good at every gun. Absolutely no, I get it. I get it. For sure. I'm I'm pretty anti gun. But that's that's a personal thing. I but I'm very pro. Look, I'm fine. People can have guns when they know how to use them and have trained and are not just going to dangerously run around flailing with them. And perhaps not a gun that just does a million bullets a second for no reason. Because that's not protection. That's just murder. I saw an interesting report. I can't remember where it was from but they were in Switzerland has very similar gun laws to Switzerland, or Sweden has very similar gun laws to us. But the respect for the weapon and it's very different. And the guy who was interviewing looked at one of the guys who's talking to who had a gun on He's like, Can I see your gun and the look on the guy's face? I'm like, Are you fucking kidding me? I am never handing you my gun ever was just like, Oh, wow. Yeah. And it wasn't like he was angry. It's just like, nobody ever asks to touch another person's gun ever. It was really, really actually really interesting. That's fascinating. I mean, they have required military service. There's nothing in Switzerland. Am I crazy? No, they probably they might. I know that. They make amazing knives. Yes. Army Knife when you go free. So I feel like I've heard that almost every Swiss person, at least people who do service, they all have a weapon. So that, you know, that would make a lot of sense to me as to why I have a Swiss Army knife. And well, the problem is that was built on guns, you know, from the Old West. And so we have a much different relationship than the unfortunate thing is, I feel like anyone wants a gun should have to like, no, that's not. I feel like there was an idea of America and why we needed a weapon. And that was to protect ourselves, not only from crazy people, but also from the elements. And I feel like having taken hikes through Alaska. It's fucking terrifying to walk through the woods in Alaska without a weapon, because of a grizzly bear which the resilience of you you die. There's no like, in between, like, they decided to take you out, you are gone. So I feel like that is the kind of mentality I wish we still carried with us. Like, this is a serious thing. Well, we're doing a rare recording at night here. And as I let you loose on that, so you tell me, what do you think? I mean, like you I'm not talking to you. It's like Escape from New York. I damn near guarantee you there is a very small percentage of people that have saw what you saw going outside your door, but wouldn't have or outside your window. I mean, right, like, right. Where the seagulls saying out? Yes, that is true. Yeah. That was, that was a moment. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. So with all of that being said, Yes. What I chose was a movie from 1977 called Rolling Thunder. His name is Charles rain. He's been away for eight years. Now, he's coming home. Speaking for myself, I'd like to say that the whole experience has made a better man, a better officer and a better American. Thank you very much. But the world has changed. I've been with another man. And he's changed to pull it up near like, you're gonna take me clear on up to the ceiling or a higher man higher to be the bone starting to crack higher. Just drop everything. With you driving too slow. It's gonna take some time to readjust your husband. He's got a whole bag of silver dollars if I don't know don't please don't face an accent. Anything. I can just let it slide major. They don't have any right to live. There's a storm brewing in this man. They took his arm. They took his family and his soul. Anger is building and it's going to explode. Now from Paul Schrader. Before sort of taxi driver comes a new and shattering film, about a man poised on the brink of violence. Rolling Thunder starring William de vane is Charles rain. He has a purpose. He has a plan. It's only a matter of time. I found the man I'll kill my son. I'll just get my gear. There's a four that came into my home. And there's Adriana let's get rolling thunder. 1977 days budget of $5 million. Box Office $130 million. Whoa, are you serious Rolling Thunder was that big of a moment? Rotten Tomatoes the critics 86% 78% from the audience. It was directed by john Flynn, who directed bestseller lock up the Stallone movie out for justice, the Seagal and it was written by this this film is kind of something else written by Paul Schrader families you've heard of taxi driver, American Gigolo, Raging Bull, Last Temptation of Christ and 23 other films. He also was the director of the cat people, remake and the Dominion the This is prequel one. It was also written by Haywood Gould wrote the boys from Brazil, Fort Apache, the Bronx and cocktail among others. Whoa, Lord, yeah. Stars William de vane, who has 125 credits ranging from Gunsmoke to the Dark Knight Rises in the middle of that 266 episodes of Knott's landing. Whoa, run msma also stars very young Tommy Lee Jones was 84 credits, including the eyes of Laura Mars, black moon rising Batman Forever. And the men in black franchise, oh, amazing. Glorious to facelift. Also stars Linda Haynes, who was in coffee, the Drowning Pool and human experiments. Is that a movie or like actions, that's why we've never heard from her again. Her last role was in human experiments. And that was it. So in 1973, major Charles rain returns home to San Antonio, with a couple other soldiers that he has been spending seven years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi. He returns to a home where his son doesn't really remember it. And he finds out that his wife has gotten engaged to a police officer friend of his because he's been missing for seven years. And they all of a sudden do his stature. arraign you can tell rain is damaged. And he just kind of stoically accepts the fact that his wife, you know, she has feelings for him, and she's happy to see him and everything. And she lets him know that I'm engaged to the cop. And he, he kind of takes it all, you know, like, and she's Oh, you know, you must think I'm awful. And he says, No, I don't think you're awful. What were you supposed to do, but you can tell that it's not a it's not a I feel sad that this is happening. It's a I shut down because I can't really work in society right now. And all that what he does is he self imposes the same daily regimen, regime he had in captivity, which is to do all of these, these setups and stuff like that, and the police officer friend attempts to make, you know, good with him and says, you know, really sorry about this, and, and he's just like, you know, no, I get it, this is what happens. And they start talking to everything. He's telling them how, you know how difficult it was there in the camp and has him, he shows him this thing about tying his arm behind his back and then starts telling the cop to start yanking on it harder and harder. Just to kind of show him what he was going through every day. She's and the COP is starting to feel very uncomfortable, because he's like, I'm gonna break your arm because he won't break my arm. And, you know, stuff like this. So. So this is where his mind is at. Meanwhile, the town has given him like this hero's welcome when he shows up and everything which he is clearly very uncomfortable with. But they've got this big, huge celebration, and he is presented with a brand new red Cadillac. And 2555 silver dollars, one for every day, he was a captive plus one pillock. Jesus Christ. That's awful. Yeah. And it's presented this by this, this pretty girl, this Texas Bell, who has worn his ID bracelets since he left now this must be something that happened in Vietnam that I don't know about where somebody from your hometown would wear your ID bracelet or something. I don't know. But, but it's, you know, this isn't 77. So keep in mind, this is really only a couple of years since Vietnam has ended. At one point, rain is home alone, now he's living with his wife and his son, but they're getting ready to do this stuff. He's home alone. And he is set upon by four men in a home invasion. Who saw him get all those silver dollars, and they want them and they start beating the shit out of him and, and, and telling him you know, give us the money and all this stuff. Tell us where it is. And he he doesn't say a thing, although during it. He's starting to flashback to being tortured and the camp and all this stuff. And basically, he just kind of shuts down which really pisses them off. So they grab him, and they drag him over to the sink. And they jam his hand in the garbage disposal. Oh, no, no, and they Mangle it and he doesn't make a sound. They're more and more angry with him. Fortunately, his wife and son come home at that point, and the son is freaking out and he's not I'll tell you where the money's at and all this stuff. So they they kick the rain. He drops by the sink, and the sun goes and gets the money and they Look at it now. All right, so they start walking out but they also shoot his son and his wife she said then turn around shoot him. Yeah, ask you to stop. That's the setup the NASA. Don't ever watch 70s Revenge movies, I can tell you now avoid this one deathwish the enforcer. Anytime there's a garbage disposal, I'm not going to be happy guys. This is a step above the garbage disposal scene is very tasteful in that they shot it. And it was so gory in the test audience that that people were standing up and screaming. So they cut it. The actual Wow, I'm concerned. So several weeks later rain is recovering in the hospital. Where is the gal that that that presented him with the silver dollars, she comes in and visits him all this stuff. And then his, his fellow soldier volden comes in. And that's Tommy Lee Jones. He basically tells rain that he's signed back into the military for another 10 years, because he just doesn't know how to how to deal with being out of the military now. So rain is just charged and he immediately goes home. He's got a new prosthetic, one of those grabby hook things. Sure. He goes into the woodshop and sharpens the shit out of that. He takes his shotgun and saws the end off. And he he goes hunting for the guys who did all this. Yeah. And he knows they're down in Mexico. So that's what he said. He finds one of the guys down there and immediately skewers him in the crotch with his hook. But after that he barely escapes with his life while the other guys are after him. So back in Texas, his cop friend, he finds the end of the sawn off shotgun. And he's like God dammit. Exactly what he's up to. So he would cop so he's able to kind of trace the car and he's got his conference like now for it and everything. They tell him. He's down to Mexico and he ends up going down there. And he ends up getting into a fight a gunfight with the guys who did all this stuff to rain and they kill him. No, Tommy. So next time we see him he is dressed in full uniform, and he goes to his buddy votans house. That's Tommy Lee Jones. And Tommy Lee Jones sees him asks no questions, immediately gets into his uniform and grabs his guns and rain basically tells him here's what we're gonna do. I'm glad to hear he survived. I thought he was the first guy. Alright, I'm with you. Right. So he says, I know that. These guys are camped out in this whorehouse down here and organized. And again, what kind of house it's a whorehouse for sex trafficker. So they go down there. They're not dressed in their uniforms when they get down there. And voting goes in first. And he picks up a prostitute named and he guesses lucky. Cyril voting to it's always candy. It's candy. It's candy and Highlander. It's candy and really thunder. I remember there being a prostitute in my name's candy. Of course you. So long goes in, he picks up prostitutes and candy. And once they're upstairs, rain sneaks and takes out a guard in the rear and goes in the back and shifts what Eric was horribly doing. God forbid, he sneaks into the the bedroom of the guy who had mangled his hand kicks up in the door. He's in there with a prostitute. And he basically says, it's your time boy, and blows him away in the bed. And votan, who's in the other room with the prostitute. As soon as he hears the gunshot. She's like, startled, he just sits up immediately reaches under the bed and starts putting together a rifle. And she's like, What the fuck are you doing? His response? I'm going to kill a bunch of people like that are pretty impressive what he says. And then a gigantic gunfight ensues. And I'll let you know how it ends. When you watch this movie is really good. It's not your typical revenge thriller because it's, it's more about the PTSD and his is just, it's it's super sad because you realize, through no fault of his own, this guy is never going to integrate back into society. He's just not going to be able to do that especially, it would have been bad enough if he was over there and then he came back but he was over there caught and then spent seven years being tortured with stuff. So I got a little bit of trivia here. The famous scene where rains hand is put into a garbage disposal was originally a lot more graphic. There was originally a shot of his hand getting destroyed. Oh, was filmed with a fake hand and lamb shank, which made it look very realistic. When the movie was previewed audience members reacted very strongly. According to writer Heywood Gould, one woman fainted another person ran into the lobby and demanded his money back and another guy was so freaked out that he entered in his car in the parking lot and crashed into another car. Oh, so after that preview, the shout of reins Han inside the disposal was cut. In his 1982 book adventures in the screen trade William Goldman called an advanced screening of this movie that advanced screening, the most violent sneak reaction of recent years, the audience actually got up and tried to physically abuse the studio personnel. Wow, that's amazing. And then finally, in the book, Schrader on trader which Paul freighter wrote, and he was the writer of this movie, he complains, the studio studio completely twisted his original version of the story. He wrote it as a critique of US involvement in the Vietnam War, and fascistic and racist attitudes in America. Rain was originally written as a white trash racist, with many similarities to Schrader's, more famous character Travis Bickle taxi driver. In this version, rain becomes a war hero without ever having fired a gun and comes home to confront the Texas Mexican community. reigns racist upbringing and hatred that grew in him in Vietnam slowly come out. This version ends with rains indiscriminate slaughter of Mexicans, which was meant as a metaphor for Vietnam. Schrader concludes with the claim that he basically wrote a film about fascism, and the studio made a fascist film. Oh, changing direction there. That sounds like something a writer would say. Yeah. I gotta say this it's really powerful movie and it's also just a really, really good movie. When you first started talking about well, what do I know? He's got a hook thing on his hand. What Oh, that's right. I positive I've seen this but if I have it's been a very long time. Was the report definitely not seen it? Definitely not heard of it. But I did study Vietnam in college, so I'm ready. Okay. No, you can bring me a new perspective. Um, so I, I, it didn't take me long to figure out what film I was gonna do. I had to go with a film that has invented an entire art form around guns. And that movie is equilibrium. is the final line of defense. If the resistance compromises it, we are doing can do this. You can not do this. There's nothing we can't do. It's real. burnin cleric. I can only hope one day to be as uncompromising as you. Your family man? Yes sir a boy and a girl it's the lawful entry we have a warrant for your wife's arrest. Remember me? Welcome to the underground. Do you know why you came? They trained you your whole life to fight these kind of odds. What can I do? I've heard the most disturbing rumor, rumor. Rumor maintaining that one knows the cleric is actually attempting to contact resistance. Then you know what I'm going to do now. precedent give yourself entirely without without incident. And that art form is good. And this came out in 2002. Have you guys seen that? Oh, yeah, yeah, literally underrated film. It's, yeah, um, it's really interesting. So the part of that's probably because the budget for it was 20 million and the box office was 5.3 million. Yes. But it's weird how that happened. The film started off having a phenomenal international release. And so they decided to pull back on all the marketing for it because they felt like they didn't want to, like, put in a bunch of money that was unnecessary. And then they ended up releasing it in like less than 300 screening like screens the loss or something. It was really low, low, low release. So I'm guessing if they made any money in the end, it was off of rentals. Right? Yeah, very, very strange marketing technique in there. came out in 2002. Rotten Tomatoes. Got it at 41% for critics, not very high 81% for audiences, so audiences love it. The writer director of this film is Curt vimar. He's actually mostly a writer, in as far as directing stuff is gone. He has a strange track record. He's done the 2020 version of Children of the Corn. He did ultraviolet equilibrium. And one. So bastard. I think I misspelled that. But he wrote sphere, ultraviolet, recruit salts, 2012, Total Recall 2015 Point Break, children of corn 2020 and the upcoming salt TV series. When you mentioned all those. I feel like this was kind of an accident because this movie is good. And those movies are shit. Yes, I think that it had a very strong idea. And maybe this was something I mean, this is an early piece for him because a lot of his stuff is very recent. So I'm just wondering if he had all his ideas in one basket and just kind of lucked out. I'm starring in this movie, Christian Bale. You may have seen him in Henry the fifth as Robin, the luggage boy. In Midsummer Night's Dream as Demetrius and perhaps one of his bigger roles Exodus Gods and Kings as Moses. Are you telling me that he also played a character named Robin through Robin Feld, the same. He also happened to be in Nolan's Batman series. He was Patrick Bateman in American Psycho and he's going to be gore the god butcher in Thor love and thunder. So look forward to seeing him then. Resting Taye Diggs in this as not sure if he's good or evil for a very long time character, Brandt. He has been in 64 different parts including it being in Chicago rent go House on Haunted Hill, and 38 episodes of all American 23 episodes of empire and two episodes West Wing. Also 10 episodes of Ally McBeal like I don't know what the tape digs run was in there, but cool, cool beans. Speaking of beans, Sean Bean is in this movie. Hey. Not for a super long time but man. Good to die in this. So shot me has died in 23 different films. This one included. not what I was expecting. You might have seen him die in Game of Thrones, patriot games GoldenEye Lord of the Rings, Henry the Eighth or the island. Man Yeah, I have a full list somewhere but it's not worth going through all of them. I do encourage you to look at Emily Watson is in this movie, who I just kept looking at her going to look so familiar. And everything I thought she was in she was not in so 62 things including breaking the waves is her big one. She was in Gosford Park Red Dragon and punch drunk love. Most recently, the thing I think I did recognize her from was Lada and Chernobyl. William Fisher's in this as a revolutionary character named Jurgen. He's been an 89 things including including Armageddon crash he drive angry and one episode of Baywatch. And Shawn patru is in this as the omnipotence overlord father He's been in 116 things including dog soldiers event horizon and Alfred and Gotham. So this movie is, um, it is just like sci fi in a bag. It's just a bug with guns. The plot is after, after world war three, it was decided that humans could not continue to exist in such chaos, and thus emotions were outlawed. Libya is established as a euphoria free from war, in its sort of totalitarian state run by the great father, who regularly communicates to the people on giant video screens. It's got a very 1984 feel very 1984. All forms of feeling are illegal. And the state controls everybody through regular injections of a suppressant called poziom. Those that violate the law and allow themselves to feel are considered to be sense offenders and are put to death. JOHN Preston, aka Christian Bale, how long ago would Kevin Smith have been killed? He does have a problem is I wouldn't be able to feel joy about it. Not not Um, well do you want to live in? JOHN Preston is a leader in the law enforcement group. He's what's called a Grand Teton cleric. He's trained in the art of gun kata. clarets clerics frequently Search and Destroy illegal material that evokes emotions such as art, literature and music. We open on a scene with him taking down a bunch of baddies like thugs and thieves and just dudes dressed in all black and just know if you played any video game. They're definitely evil and you kill them. And you watch them all you know, you're like, Oh, yeah, get him get him. And then all of a sudden, they're all dead and he's pulling up the floorboards and underneath is the Mona Lisa. And he sets it on fire. Oh, hormonal II sound. So yeah, I was like, Oh, wait, you're bad. Like it's been a while since I see that. Preston's own wife was actually put to death for sons offending previously leaving him alone to raise two children as a widower. He was tested early on in the movie to see if he had a response to this. And he says he feels nothing about it. And that seems to be true. In the meantime, in this world, this perfect utopia. There are some baddies fighting back with a movement simply called the Underground's, after one large art raid, Preston's partner, Errol Partridge, aka Sean Bean, saves a book of poems by eights and puts in his pocket, he tells, he tells Preston that he is going to take it and turn it in himself because he can't trust the cleanup crew to do it properly. And of course, he does not. Preston looks into it and discovers that he's been going off into these sort of ruinous city outside the borders, and the night during the night and he finds them in a church they're reading, reading poetry. He Errol no longer wishes to live in this world and forces Preston to gun him down while reading poetry aloud to him. It's very dramatic, but very, it's pretty, it's it's pretty cool. As a very, it's just the whole don't try out, tread lightly for you try to pull my dreams things very, very sweet. And it's very sad because john Payne I wanted him to be around longer. Shortly after Preston accidently breaks his daily vial of Prozac and is unable to replace it before the next raid. He finds himself starting to feel and he just does not manage to get his poziom like he was trying and then be like, Oh crap, and now they're gonna know that I didn't take it if I try to take it now and try to cover it up because he's like the top like policing official. But at the same time, he starts to see things like colors and he feels textures and he can hear things that he hasn't really been hearing before. He feels the temperature details, all this kind of stuff. And he starts to just sort of hide his vitals away. And his emotions grow and grow. throughout the film. He starts to embrace music and arts and even falls in love with one sense of Fender aka merio Brian, and he starts to question his role in libreria libreria insides with the offenders my god who could have seen this happening who could have known it is science fiction dystopian film that a bad guy would start to wonder about his own life and place and I didn't. His new partner has replaced Shawn been being Taye Diggs. Okay. Brandt is suspicious but please add very cool tactics is also a very confusing character by the way in this movie because he's emotional as fuck the whole way through. He's constantly giving me like sly smiles and looks and like laughs And I'm like, you are totally a sense offender Why has no one arrested this dude, bro? Like, hey man, you can't even hold back your mo anyway. Have a beautiful black man, he you know he's a beautiful black man is easy. Yeah, he's a gorgeous human being. So it's okay to watch him watch Preston. He's constantly watching him and he's kind of watching him in the same way. Of course definitely not ironically that Preston was watching Errol. In fairness, Preston is making it pretty obvious that he is starting to feel because he does things like insist on saving Mary and not just killing her on the spot and saying she has valuable information we need to take her in for questioning. We definitely can't kill her right now. And right here. He's he's stealing item from the rates including a puppy. He just straight up grabs a puppy news like I need to, um, we need to test it because it might have disease by dog like that. And he literally at one point starts breaking down in the middle of the street crying. I'm like, you know, you could do a better job. Like they show like how like one person will just have like a teeny tiny little flicker in their face and they get called off the street and murdered. And yeah, he's like, just, it's fine. You're making the sound crappy. No, it's good. I love science fiction. I love dystopian movies. And this has so much style. It's fucking unreal. It's just there a couple of logic moments where you're like, come on, y'all just try a little harder. The little subtleties just fine for audiences. Of course brand sees all these things ground pressing, he turns them in over to father but Preston has plans and he tries to turn in brand and he says no I'm not the offender brands the offender and then father's like oh, okay, I will arrest brand. But then brand is like Haha, it was a secret undercover job. So you're arrested. It's a lot of twists in a very short period of time. So the big question being will press and be able to stop Brandt save Marry, Kill father put the resistance in place and free lib Ria Will he be able to outwit his creepy creepy son? His team of Raiders? as creepy as hell? Yeah, there's some good sun and stuff in there. He also keeps murdering his own raid teams and I'm like, What is this gonna end up like coming back here? Cuz That happens a lot. Um, and pull off the ultimate gun kind of Final Fight. Who's to say how this movie ends? I don't know. Could be anything could have a gunfight maybe even more than one hard to say. Do they? Do they address that? Taye Diggs has been emoting at all I mean yeah, she just acting he's that good of an actor. Oh my god. They do say at one point that the guy who is that like head spokesperson for father he is a sense of fender and but he's like I'm doing this because I'm trying to understand and see through like the bullshit around me Sure, but they never take to exist just suppose we're all supposed to believe that. He's definitely on the like poziom he's definitely not feeling shit. He's definitely not like gleefully. Haha, I've got you like all the time. So he's just he's just a twist. He's just the heat. You got to buy it. You just have to all the toys. You just have to assume that he's no, there's no twist. He's just definitely not feeling anything. Right. Yeah, yeah. Um, however, I will say there is a fight with Taye Diggs, that is, like maybe built up to through the whole movie. And maybe it lasts about two seconds. This is because a fun trivia note. Taye Diggs actually got another job and had to peace out pretty quickly. And so did not have time to spend much time if maybe at any time at all. In this way. It might actually just be a stunt double followed by a quick death. Wow. Yeah. So it's a weirdly abrupt kind of ending in that way. But there is a lot going on in the end. So I wouldn't say that the end is spoiled by that at all. It's just like the whole gun kata thing seems to sort of that isn't the big moment for it feels like. So this movie was shot in Berlin due to the unique mixture of fascist and modern architecture, and the idea cityscapes and design. of liberty a came from the works of Hugh Ferris, an early 20th century conceptual artist, the writer and director curve and themer invented the martial arts style of gun fighting for this movie in his own backyard. Way to go, Kurt, I'm just like imagining like the ultimate mill lady in his backyard with his gun be like, I'm so cool to Dora. Yes, yeah. Exactly. Dora nailed it. Yeah, I mean, okay, the film like I like a lot about the film, but it does have that kind of feel to it. The kendo type swords that are used in the sparring scene early on, where you do get a really good kind of sparring gun kata scene with bale antics. They were actually they used wood for these swords, because they were which I'm sorry, which were easily broken because Balan digs were really whacking each other with, they just kept breaking them over and over again, which is very good. The cool thing about this, no wires were actually used in this film. There's a ton of stunt work in this, it was done through conventional means, such as a backflip off of a motorcycle was done using a trampoline. So it just it looks fucking cool. It looks matrix style level fighting, so they did a great job. The film's fight choreographer, Jim rammos, Vickers and Kurt vimar had some slight disagreements on how the martial art guiding kata should be performed on screen, you can see a little little friendly jobs that the choreographer in the film when Kurt vimar performs the gun kata at the beginning, you see it's very fluid and smooth. The way it's actually used in the film is very rigid with few flowing movements thrown in. There's also there's just a lot of little things little digs. Interestingly, and this isn't something I noticed, but I do appreciate it. The violence in this film grows. As the film progresses, it starts off at almost a sort of PG level violence where you don't really see the deaths you just you see a lot of people die, but you don't see any blood or anything. By the end. It's like frickin soaked in blood. You're like trudging through puddles of blood. And the idea is that it's reflecting the emotional sensitivity and growth of the character. Just pretty cool. The puppy used in the film was a bernese Mountain dog the noises if Oh, he's cute as hell. The noises that makes which are include the barks whines and yelps were not made by the dog, but by an actor who specialized in mimicking animal ruff ruff. I do live like you might have noticed this on Mandalorian. Like all the sounds are made by like an adult man who's making like the baby noises. I was like, Why don't y'all just get a baby? I understand. I liked least when it actually sounded like a baby. Really? Yeah. But I know. You don't think he's 50 years old. He's like, I think he's like 80 or something. Yeah. So yeah, they they did some budget cuts in this. They had two fire trucks in the film, which they basically just kind of repainted with new numbers on it to make it look like a lot more. And to Higgs drives a car several times in the film. He actually had never driven a car before. And so they had to basically pretend he was driving it isn't he in the Fast and Furious movies. He does not know how to drive while we did some practice and you might have maybe he learned Yeah, maybe he learned since 2000. To two actresses had to play Preston's wife. The the condemnation of the wife archive footage was filmed first and featured Alexis summer. When it came to film the rest of the film she was arrested and could not be found. So Maria Pia Cal zone had to take her place. Summer is credited as Viviana Preston and Maria as Preston's wife in the credits. Interesting. Thought police got there in there so soon. Daniel Radcliffe audition for the part. Preston john Preston son. I'm just trying. There's so much trivia on this film. It's kind of unreal. So let me Well, you wrap this up here. Preston kills 118 characters in the movie and until 2009 help third place record for most deaths in a movie caused by one character, which is pretty good. And like I said earlier, they cut the fight between press and branch short because it was supposed to be a lot longer but Taye Diggs schedule was too tight. rumor was that he wasn't there for the fight at all. Visual Effects budget ran out during post and they were forced to keep some practical effects especially when people shot were shot and murdered. So instead of blood, a lot of it's just like large clouds of dust. Just pretty, pretty awesome. Um, and yeah, in 2017 they made a comic book series about it three issue comics series set in that world. And of course, Christian Bale, Dominic Purcell, William Faulkner and Sean pursue all later. played in DC comic based movies and television shows. Both bill and FECKNER played in The Dark Knight Trilogy, with bale playing the lead role Bruce Wayne Batman and the trilogy sorry spoiler alerts, and FECKNER played a bank manager in The Dark Knight. Purcell played heat wave and DC legends of tomorrow and pursue arch Pertwee played Alfred pennyworth in Gotham. I think they're flashing the flashlight at you. So five minutes. All you got left. I'm done and done. Well, I'm sorry. Okay. Um, hold on. No, No, I haven't. Actually. Yeah. So I overall, like the film a lot. Just had a couple of logic things here and there. I remember liking this one quite a bit. But it has been a long time since I've seen it. So I know. You said 2000 to 2002. Yeah, I know. I didn't see it in the theater. And I thought I saw like 2008 or something. And it was only because somebody finally said you haven't seen equilibrium. That's exactly how I saw it. Somebody was like, you haven't seen equilibrium. And I was like, that might have been me. I remember watching it randomly for me because Kevin because of bail, like cuz I liked him as an actor. Here's some reason. This is good. Probably was you? Well, all right, so I picked a subtle action movie with not a lot of action, but a lot of story. The 1992 Hard Boiled on dark streets with violence consumes everything it touches, and the innocent live in fear. To man dedicated to justice will follow different paths. As one searches for revenge, and the other for redemption. fate will bring them together. For those who hide behind the shadow of corruption, one thing is certainly a day of reckoning is coming. From the director of the killer and Mission Impossible to Chow Yun Fat. And Tony learn in one of the greatest action movies ever made. Hard Boiled, yeah. This is a giant action movie. Rotten Tomatoes, Lissa. 94 critics 92 audience nice. budget was premiere where you look either 4 million or 4.5 million, which seems really low for this film. Yeah. It's currently pretty much only available on YouTube. Unfortunately, I own the 98 criterion edition of that and killer because I work in at suncoast. And I knew had been out of print and came out by him. So yeah, it's hard to see. That's so crazy is such a good film. God, directed by john Woo. Who has done a few films you might have heard of. But the killer hard target face off. A better tomorrow one and two. Some of those are really good. Written by john woo he did the story. The guy named Barry Wong did this the screenplay but he was also a screenplay writer for The killer. Apparently Charlie on fat now goes by human fat Chow. So that's how he's listed as IMDb. Now. I think that's how Chinese names are. That's how his name actually was and that it said his birth name was Charlie on fat. So I don't weird, it could be a cultural thing too is like this is your birth name, but this is actually how you say Your name or something? He was in few little mu s film two Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The Fairly I think, kind of underrated replacement killers, which isn't great, but is better than some of the john Woo. For us, john Williams, and the killer, and he's got a new face saga. He's still working. He's got a film coming out in 2022. And was he in Milan at all? I don't know. I've got a fairly long list of credits. He's also has a Tony Chai wildling bullying. Who has 99 credits, three and posts and is in a couple movies Red Cliff one and two and 2046 which if you haven't seen sounds like it might be up your alley. Red Cliff is amazing, though. I didn't know that. I've heard that. There's really good. Teresa Mo, who's in a found another one of those titles. I love saying I love you. You're perfect now change. That's a brilliant title and men, men suddenly and black one and two. But she also has a ton of credits and Philip Philip Chung Fung Kwok, who is very recognizable. he popped on screen gone. Who the hell is this guy he's been in Tomorrow Never Dies brotherhood of the wolf. But his main claim to fame was lots of Shaolin movies in the 70s. And when you see a shot of him with his long hair, your if you've seen any shell in movies, you Oh yeah, I remember him. And rikkyo the story of Ricky? Oh, oh, yeah. Chose characters named tequila. So if you see here, we mentioned tequila at any point. That's what I'm talking about drink every time he mentions. You'll be disappointed. Just randomly. So it has been a long time since I watch this. But as soon as it starts up with him pouring the drink, putting the napkin over the drink and slamming it against the the bar, I'm gone. I watched this a lot. When I first came out. I didn't I said, God, I remember this really well. There's a scene after that that opening shot is really cool, according to I think is john Woo. He did this drink. It's tequila and soda water, or just slam on the bar to make it fizz real strong and then drink it down. Interesting. Okay, he just thought that look really cool. stuff, which is how john woo makes movies. There's a scene after after the tea house shooting implementing soon, but it's in the same bar, which is, in fact Chow and john Woo. Chow wanted a moment to show his friendship with john woo in this movie. So they scripted and shot it in an hour as an extra scene to be in the movie. And of course, it's john Woo. There's no dubs. There are no slow motion shots at doves that I kept waiting for him. However, there is the opening action scene. For some reason a bunch of guys bring in birds in cages into this like restaurant. I mean, there's a reason Chow has his butt there is white but bird cages. You find out why for him at least when he kicks open The Birdcage and three guns come falling out of the bottom of it. I'm sorry. Yes. So this is the first action scene and it's it just starts off awesome. It's the first real big guns fight and your gun Yep, this is john will if you've seen john Will you understand they he does the magical guns that only need to be really reloaded if it looks really cool or if you needs a pause in the action to you know somebody doesn't get shot or something. Other than that his face guns never stop having bullets. It's impressive. Part of what I think hit him why he hits so huge interviewer remotely have felt movie fan in the early 90s you were there for the john Wu invasion of killer and hard boiled. And some of it I think was just the way he shoots Well, it's all about how he shoots action. His mix of slow motion and regular speed is just astounding. With incredibly wild stunts. Chow sliding down the staircase shooting two guns at the upon it was an improvisational moment that he came up with on the set oh my god the the idea of using that flower in this end of that scene where he shoots the guy in the blood that was also child like hey, we haven't flirted with pull it on my face and look really cool. Okay. After that it's a series of segments attempting to try to be a movie of the two between the killer and heart. This is definitely the weaker story. It's less emotional story less invested. Some of that is a lot of stuff was cut. Because it is a two hour plus movie as it is now and apparently a lot of the love moments and slow scenes like that were cut out. But what you got to do So you go back and forth you do a little bit of that. It's luckily Not quite. Hong Kong humor sometimes can be very weird. Like this one had less than I thought it must be scenes in a killer I was thinking about where it's just almost slapstick Marx Brothers kind of stuff. I do remember. Because you turned me on to this film. And I do remember watching it and thinking, the Japanese have a different sense of humor. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Have a different sense of humor than we do the the scene where he's holding the baby and he's like this scene. Ever everything. And I guess it's supposed to be funny, but it's just like, wow, how interesting. Yeah, that's alright. Story wise, there's nothing original movie. The good guys are white hat except for you know, tequilas, got to have his arguments with his boss and the police commissioner and stuff. The young villains are trying to take over for the old bad guy and all that stuff wandering around with their giant brick cell phones. With their first of a couple kept Captain yelling at his cop moments in this one. So then we move on to the next scene for the reason of this movie. The criminal double crossing which is filled with guns motorcycles, explosions and people fly in frigging everywhere. The, I'd say the shortest violent scene until tequila shows up alone to deal with the problem. So we're looking at in this scene, you've got the lead villain and all his guys, you've got the AppStore and son and all of his guys and one cop. Guess who comes up? smoke bombs, hand grenades, shotguns, machine guns, exploding motion, motorcycles, slow motion, and of course reloading only when it helps the story. And of course it comes down in the end to the cop the badass of the bad guys and the lead bad guy or is he? Because they go face to face in that classic standoff thing you've seen in so many movies with guns to their necks, and he doesn't shoot tequila. He gets upset and you get your next yelling at the captain back and forth. Why aren't you telling me that everything's going on? You know, if you think I'm flying over the storyline, it's potential. This is not a movie to watch for the deep storytelling. However, I will say I had forgotten how unbelievably charismatic Chow is on on screen. Holy shit. That man just fills the screen. See, oh, there's a little scene on the vote boat where he finds out what's really going on with the sun. And some people come to take out the sun. You can imagine how well it goes for them. And so a short little action scene. The also the previous one with all the bad guys is more than 20 minutes of Mad wrong scenes with a really a two minute a drama scene in the middle of it. Sounds very familiar. And then it's time for the hospital scene. Yes. Well, Chad john woo wanted a different location for guns, you know, because they always have these guys are gun runners and they always keep them in some random warehouse. It's like you know where you should keep it in a hospital. So there's this weird basement that you get in by going through the the big steel doors they put corpses in. Behind that doors this giant room filled with hundreds of guns Thus begins. At this point it's about 40 minutes left movie with the exception of a few breaks to drill some tension like when they discover the room full of babies and all that. It's it's all gunfight from here to the end of the movie. And it is crazy. It's over the top it's ridiculous if you're a logic person that needs everything to make sense in your movies, john woo is not going to be your first choice. But if you like cool African stuff, random people getting blown up it's awesome. And the famous scene of the baby with him carries the baby to safety and baby puts out the fire on his legs. Interesting connection between this one and equilibrium the body count for hard target is 307 number seven on the list. Body counts for movies. According to movie body count calm equilibrium has 236 and it's number 14 on the list ah so you just said hard target but you're talking about hard boiled Hard Boiled okay because hard target is also a Wilma there it is yes yeah, hard boiled. Meat move all the movies preceding Hard Boiled art Lord of the Rings Return of the King Kingdom of Heaven 300 Troy last side of my Samurai assignment, and two towers and the Grindhouse double feature both films. So it's the old movies with more killings and that are pretty much war movies. Oh my God. That is how many people are taken out in this film. Yeah. There they use more than 200 guns in the film. And Hong Kong is very strict gun laws so they shipped them in from England. And they had to be expected by the Hong Kong Police before they could be used. They also had to ship blanks, of which they use over 100,000 rounds of blank ammunition. Oh my gosh. That's a fun job of picking up all that stuff. Ciao, yarn are better. How are we gonna say his name Chow Yun Fat looks like he might be the Keanu Reeves of Hong Kong. He is known for shopping a discount stores and things because he's like, if it's comfortable for me, I'm going to wear Nope, I don't give a crap on people think about my clothes, spends free time hiking and jogging and is often seen client taking pictures with people and signing autographs. He is readily recognizable. There's a period in the mid early to mid 90s, where he was one of the number one actors in Hong Kong and most Asian world. He's hugely popular. He's currently in the process of donating his entire$715 million fortune, and I guess he's keeping himself busy. Barry Wong the writer died before Hard Boiled was finished. So it sent it into crazy rewrites, they added in a couple characters and removed the original plotline of a baby poisoning psychopath a couple of reasons. One, the producer went to the US and received very negative response. It was john Lou's attempt to create a Clint Eastwood Steve McQueen kind of character in Hong Kong really wasn't successful. As far as that goes, I didn't do a lot of feature films of that character. Let's see got pretty good reviews. And when it was released, but was not as successful as a better tomorrow or the killer. Both had better box office, they took 123 days to shoot, the hospital scene took 40 days to shoot. I'm not surprised during the shooting of the hospital scene at real glass was accidentally used for a gunfight between two of the people sending Tony to the hospital. And depending on where you read either went for a day or a week. So after long hours shooting in the hospital because they they blocked out all the windows and started making like a giant casino so you couldn't see what was going on. So the crew would get very disoriented time got very tired. And they got near the end. And john was like, Okay, I'm going to do something to help you guys. We'll get through these last segments really fast by shooting the last, not the last five minutes of the film. But the last five minutes scenes they had to shoot by crunching it down. And what they did was the two leads get into an elevator. The elevator closes. And 20 seconds later, it opens up on a new scene, which the crew had just reset while the elevator was shut. And they're talking. So it was done in one take. Oh my god. And they did it in one take. And I'd read that before I was watching it. So watch for that scene and like wow, it's it's impressive. Let's see where else Oh, and during the field the film's when he's running down to the end with the baby and the everything's exploding behind them. They shut that one twice because the first time john who did not like how far back behind ciao. The explosions were Oh no. So he made them a lot closer. And again, I'd read this before I was watching the scene and one Holy crap, man. I mean, he is close. Like I always figured it was it must have been a depth thing, but apparently it was much closer than then was originally intended. hardboiled premiered in 92 at the Toronto International Film Festival to a very routed responsive stopping feed and yelling at the screen. Completely surprising the producer thought it would be well we lucky if we do well in America. So unfortunately, like I mentioned earlier this as phenomenal as this film is as popular as the director and the lead actor are it's virtually been unreleased. There was a LaserDisc released in 95. The Criterion Collection released hardboiled and the killer and 98 are subsequently have gone out of print. A DVD was released in of the two in 2000 Miramax bought the rights to hardball the killer and bullets ahead intending to release a cut version. and john woo said no. Wow. Most of the size of the most recent one was by a company called dragon dynasty which came out in 2007. But there's no remaster blu ray, there's no 4k there's nothing that which and you This needs to be remastered watching the DVD. It looks fine. I'm surprised it's not available for at least streaming through the criterion channel. Yeah, that's a they may have do that occasionally, but they rotate for. I don't know if they sell the rights to it though. Yeah. Wow. Remember we were also talking about. Weinstein used to be notorious for buying people's films and then editing them when they released themselves, so it's nice that we'll have the power to say fuck you. No, no, no. And in 2007 another similarity to your phone. There is a sequel release, but it was released on video game. It wasn't a movie, but it did have the two leads reprising their roles. Are they kidding? Oh my god. It's called a stranglehold. I don't know where it's out if it's still available might be worth checking out. Yeah, like what system would even be on? Yeah, cuz you say it's hard to say why john woo didn't quite work in the US. I mean, his his mission impossible V is probably the weakest in the series. Yeah, absolutely and hard target. Although entertaining and better for john Claude Van Damme is still a john Claude Van Damme film. I think that all the savvy action directors were stealing so much from him before he came over here that by the time he got over here, his stuff wasn't as innovative as it was. Yeah, right. Very true. I we face off is probably his most entertaining. Yeah, film, and it's got problems. But he has continued to make movies. He just doesn't do a lot of us films. end with a quote from john woo about filmmaking. logic is very boring. When I'm shooting, I do what I feel I'm free and open. And he's also notoriously known for not using storyboards. Whoa, holy shit. He adds he has no love for film theory or proper film language and simply uses what he wants. Oh my god, how does he make it? Like so we're together? That's crazy. Like when we saw was a Goldman when he was talking in LA at that script thing. Goldman where he talked about he didn't believe in story structure. Like that's because you completely naturally right? Yeah, story structure. You just do it. And john was just one of those visualize it in his head and know exactly what he needs and therefore doesn't have to. Because there's no way that you're just like, No, no, I'm gonna roll work. see what we get. I wonder if he got away with that to us films. I want to because Hong Kong get away with a lot struck people that are freaking insane. Yeah, really good. But they're nuts. And probably get away with a lot more like the elephant in the US. Just your your stunt director will be like, I need storyboards. What have you got planned for this? Yeah. Explain to me how this is gonna happen without anyone getting hurt. Well, that scene of him sliding down the banister, shooting, that would never be something that an American crew would be okay, just shooting on the fly. Yeah, I got an idea. Let's do it. Right. Know. If you've only seen john Roos American movies, go find the killer and hard target for I'm guessing the killers probably on YouTube as well. I like hard boiled more said hard targeting endemic hard boil, but I do recognize that the killer is a stronger story. But Hard Boiled is just so visually cool. It's just kind of really fun. I actually need to watch the killer, but it's just such a fun film. And I feel like there was this like thing going on in the 90s or was like good era for the baby in a movie, the baby with like, a gentleman who perhaps would not normally be around a baby. Like everybody was running with this concept. And it just it's so enlightening. And it's like, oh, yeah, or light Harding. Ling Ling. I don't know. Anyways, it makes everything light and it makes it feel fun and silly. And you respect the guy because he cares about a baby pet the dog? Yep. Got a pet that damn dog and making me want to pull out my hard boiled poster and rephrase. Get it up on the wall. Nice. Well, cool. So then I believe there it is. Your turn. Yes. Yes, it is. Part of your card from there. It's like I know, I know. I have Oh, yeah. That's what my idea was the probably more likely to go back to LA more to the horror here. But the idea is, you have to survive the night. Sort of like the Vincent Price movie, where they he brings everybody in and survive the night to win the contest or whatever. And any number of those movies where somebody gets lost along a desert road and has to hang out with Frank converter, anything like that. As always, we could make it a musical. Okay, I like that. I want to throw out one big howdy to Michael bronzo, who was just a guy I know who's listened to the show and comments on it every once in a while. So I really appreciate that. And appreciate everybody who's commenting and liking and saying all sorts nice things sharing everything. Spread. Thank you for checking us out and staying with us if you have already found us. It's a nice way to put it. Yeah. I'm sure a lot of people listen to one episode and for me that chick was so big. She still happened since 2000. It wasn't even to me. I was nice and quiet. I was a girl that in take that in the way it was intended. I don't know what that I don't mean it pejoratively. I mean it, you know, like, I don't mean it in a bad way. I mean, you're bitchy. Yeah. So, Jesus. All right. So that's the show we're talking about. We'll see if I can survive the night after that. Our show is recorded somewhere high above Naval Station Everett at the nexus of all realities, and is engineered and produced by Eric Margaret. Our theme music is Strange Aeons part one by the band name shade is usually permission. Find Strange Aeons radio on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Wherever find podcasts