[00:00:00] Blank Check with Griffin and David, Blank Check with Griffin and David, Don't know what to say or to expect, All you eat to know is that the name is a show, it's Blank Check!
[00:00:19] There was an accident. About an hour ago, a small jet went down inside New York City. The podcast was on board. The podcast of what? So that's the one you wanted to do. Yeah.
[00:00:34] But I was just, I was sort of like the podcast of what doesn't mean anything. Fine, but the other one? What's the other one? It's a survival of the podcast, plus something you don't give a shit about. That is pretty good. That's a good line.
[00:00:50] That's just a great, God this movie's got such, this movie's front loaded with good lines. That is fair. First 20 minutes, you're just like, oh my God. Because it's Griffin. Because Griffin and Russell are really jealous. Those are two guys. Yeah.
[00:01:05] I feel like Russell has acknowledged how much Pliskin is vocally Eastwood. Right? Is him doing his Eastwood impression. So there's something about a young buck with an eye patch. Is that true though? Has he talked about it at all? Yeah. That's supposed to be, okay.
[00:01:27] Yeah, I thought there was some quote from him, I think in the notes that Aaron Jay Bursh put together where he was talking about like all the different parts that went into Pliskin. He says, right. He's a mercenary.
[00:01:39] His style of fighting is a combination of Bruce Lee, the exterminator and Darth Vader with Eastwood's vocals, but there's a lot of new wave to him as well. Okay. Yeah, exactly. He's shining bounce to his hair, that's for sure. The like Lisa says God pants.
[00:01:54] His pants are so cool. The gray camo, like when he's doing it. It's not even camo, it's just like this weird swirly pattern. So good. Who are the two people in the dossier? I know Charles Bronson was the one and then there was another. Tommy Lee Jones. Right.
[00:02:11] Amazing. I love to see it. Tommy Lee Jones dare I say would have rocked that. No, but here's the only problem. Can you have Tommy Lee Jones with that hair? I mean, he and like in like under siege, he's got long hair.
[00:02:23] I've seen you, but the only problem is I don't buy that Tommy Lee Jones would go into me. He'd be like, no. And I'd be like, yeah, he doesn't want to do that. Like he just doesn't seem like someone who wants to do that. Yeah, that's fair. Yes.
[00:02:37] Yes. There's also there's the satirical edge that comes only from Russell playing it from him sort of being a little bit in on the joke.
[00:02:45] You know, and I think it's aided by the fact that it's like for audiences you're watching a Disney star now playing the toughest guy in the fucking universe. You know what I mean?
[00:02:56] Like it just feels like it would be like me seeing Tommy Lee Jones in person being like, don't you want to be in this movie? And be like, no, I don't want to do that. Russell was the right choice. I'm just saying Tommy Lee Jones would have fit.
[00:03:07] Charles Bronson would have been a problem. He would have just been overwhelming. He would have been doing Charles Bronson. Right. Too old probably too. Exactly. I don't know. He'd be alright.
[00:03:18] To a certain degree it's like there's the fact that he so fully creates a character for this movie, you know? You think about other like action icons, especially of the 80s, right? And their breakthrough movie is kind of the distillation of their base level persona.
[00:03:34] You know, it's like, well, McClain that's now it's taken all the sitcom comedy past of Willis and putting him into this underdogs or an ordinary mode, right? And like Arnold breaks through playing barbarians and robots, you know?
[00:03:48] And Stallone being this sort of like weary underdog, this broken guy, you know? And Syngill. I mean he counts his 80s and he's like mysterious and like calm and intrigue. Which is so funny to think about in retrospect. Yes. That he, that everyone's like, what's this guy's deal?
[00:04:07] He walks into a room and I want to know more. What a quiet power to this one. It's like, I don't all of those other people where I'm like with their current personas. I'm like, that still totally jives with what I think of their past personas.
[00:04:18] But Steven Segal looking at him now, I'm like, I can't watch his old movies anymore. It's like that it doesn't work for me. It's wild. It's wild. It's also just, well look, we did our whole Steven Segal episode.
[00:04:30] We did our under siege dark territory episode in the past. This is true. And I will just jump in and say I kind of agree. It's like, I love Segal movies growing up, but there's just something about who he has become that's like real sticky.
[00:04:44] Our episode was literally and figure two. Five years ago now? Long time ago. If not more. And I feel like he just gets worse by the like the hour. Oh yeah, absolutely. Like every morning I open up the laptop and I check.
[00:04:58] That's the term for chemical deterioration rate again. Like it's that. His half life or whatever. Yeah, sure. But it's like I go to New York times and I look at the charts and I'm like, how's the spread of Delta going? What is Segal going today?
[00:05:10] You know what has devalued in the Steven Segal universe. It's just fascinating that Steven Segal is just like, Oh, like Hollywood power agents and executives are going to his karate dojo and they're just like, this guy is fascinating. Yeah.
[00:05:25] He needs to be on screen and then you watch when I'm like, I think I figured him out pretty quickly. I don't know. He's pretty compelling. He's compelling. He has a sense of like calm mystery. Very calm. Very calm. This is my point just Van Damme.
[00:05:37] I don't think Van Damme ever quite had that. Correct. And it's why maybe he was never quite the A star. And I like Van Damme movies, but I do think there was not that crystallization role for him. Except that he was like flexible.
[00:05:52] Hey, but is there a karate actor now? Do we have like a guy who's good at martial arts and now as an actor? Yes, but they are stuck in direct to video. Direct to red box. I mean, it's like Michael J. White and Scott Atkinson. Right. Right.
[00:06:07] Those are our best physical. It's like either that or they're foreign actors. They're like Tony Jaw, someone who is like mostly, I'm trying to think of like. I'm saying in the American system, those are our two best actors. Yeah.
[00:06:19] And they don't get to do big screen if they do. The other problem is you can like pre-vis everything now so you can make anyone look like a, you know, like they can do impossible physical movements and I don't know. Yeah. Maybe that's the problem.
[00:06:31] I mean, I think I've thrown out this bullshit before but the fact that like on Iron Fist, they would like show him the choreography 30 minutes before he had to start filming. Right.
[00:06:42] And it's like not only did they not hire a guy with a background, which of course those guys. They didn't even train him. Right. Oh, I thought of someone, Rhonda Rousey. Oh no. Yeah, but she didn't really take off. Like she was in movies, right?
[00:06:54] I think she's good and furious. No, she's not. She's not good. Yes, she is. She's fine. Yes, she is, but I do think she was so charismatic in the ring and interviews that people were like, this is going to translate. Right.
[00:07:09] That's only Gina Krana who was like physically impressive but was kind of lacking in personality for a while. It's funny that Rhonda Rousey did SNL. It was like, oh maybe there's not a thing here. Yeah. Yeah. It's just funny that we're having this conversation when Kurt Russell probably
[00:07:24] punches two people total in this movie. Well, this is the one fight in the ring that's a little more, but he's not even, this is, he looks normal. All the fights are sort of funny where they're all sort of slow. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:07:36] They're kind of a little goofy too. And he looks, I mean, I think he's so handsome, but you know, doesn't have like a body that like is insane or anything. Well. Kind of looks like a pretty in shape dude. The arms though.
[00:07:51] No, he looks good, but compared to some of the guys we've been to. Yeah. I mean, he's not a short snagre type really. Oh my God, what a specimen this person is. The lone star gets so yoked, you know, all these sorts of people, even like Chuck Norris
[00:08:01] and whatever. It's like when people have veins in their arms, you're like, I didn't think that my arms had veins like sticking out in that way. I thought it was just one thing. Right. I didn't realize it was ridged in that way.
[00:08:13] I just think it's fascinating and it's part of the key to the success of this movie and certainly its legacy. And I feel like despite the fact that yes, he does not do a lot of action,
[00:08:22] Snake Blast can tends to be thought of as like one of the Mount Rushmore iconic action heroes, right? Certainly of the last like 40 years or whatever. Yeah. That it is like a guy who is so desperate to shatter his previous persona
[00:08:38] that he just creates a full stop character that feels so distant from him and even what he does with Carpenter later, you know, that it is just really like a character and not a movie star persona, even though it's driven by
[00:08:52] movie star energy and that anyone else in this role. It's like Tommy Lee Jones, if he had done this and it had worked, he would have been Snake Pliskin. That would have been his iconic role, his default.
[00:09:02] Can you imagine what Metal Gear would be if Tommy Lee Jones had been Snake Pliskin? But even that, like the fact that like, Snake Pliskin gets ripped off so much more than John McClane does because the key to John McClane is Willis. It's not on the page.
[00:09:17] Whereas like Russell and Carpenter constructed something, you know, which is very interesting to me. Yeah, kind of to that point, I feel like this is not a character that is easy to do or in fact like the whole movie, its tone is like not
[00:09:33] something that you can kind of do anymore, like where it's very earnest and it's like, yeah, he's doing this voice that's clearly put on, but it's not supposed to be funny at all. Like it is like this guy is super fucking cool.
[00:09:42] You would most likely be snickering at them almost immediately. They're like, I'm tough guy. I was sort of thinking about it. I think the only person who has tried to do this in serious earnestness is like Nicholas Winding Reffen and people do laugh at his movies.
[00:09:55] They do snicker at it, although that's part of the fun much like this, I suppose, so that's a good call. But right, like Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, these guys, you know, they're trying to be a little vulnerable, little personable, their long heads, their fun, right?
[00:10:09] Two pronged thing I want to say. One, I do think Cage upheld this for a while, certainly in his Burr Chimer run. Right now when he's doing action waves half the time he's folding them. But Cage, right, it's the same where you're like, is this guy fucking kidding?
[00:10:21] Like, I like it. The linear performance is absolutely towing that line, whereas what's impressive about St. Plisken is you know what level Russell's on. Like there's none of that like, is this guy fucking up questioning that you get sometimes
[00:10:34] with a Cage con error, at least the public did at the time, right? Or it's like, is this brilliant or is he an idiot? Right, yeah, yeah. Right, Russell you understand how in on the joke he is without selling it out. There's that cool.
[00:10:45] Like this is a cool. You think this guy's cool? That's what's fascinating. But you think St. Plisken's a cool guy? He's not fucking, I've had it. He's cool because his fucking name is Snake motherfucker. Did you notice that he has a snake tattooed onto his chest?
[00:10:56] I have a big question about this. Does the tail, does the tail go under the dick? Well, I think it goes. The tail's the peepee. His peepee's a rattle. Oh, that's a good call. Well, because the other... Yeah. So, but here's the question.
[00:11:09] Does the tail just touch the top of the... So it's a basket to use Griffin's nomenclature peepee? The peepee. Or does it, has he tattooed his entire penis black? Right. Which in my opinion would be a bad move and I don't think you should do it.
[00:11:23] Your question is just along the top. That's what I was thinking. It comes to a point, but it goes down the penis. But like... Also, wouldn't you want it to be the head of the snake? Well, okay, well something, well, but the head's here.
[00:11:38] I mean, the head's on his tummy. But just like in retrospect, wouldn't you be like, isn't it... Well, there's a bunch of... No. One, I think he circumcised. Like there's a lot of questions. Yes. Two, if you tattoo your penis...
[00:11:48] Oh, guess by the way is physically miming out. Yeah, okay. And I don't know the answer to this, but I'm sure I could Google and I'm sure... Hey, sounds off in the comments up there. If you tattoo your penis, let us know what you think.
[00:11:58] How does it deal with an erection? Like, is that a conversation you have to talk to? Because like, you know how like Mike Tyson got Che Guevara like tattooed on his tummy, like a face shape. And then he got kind of fat and then Che Guevara was like...
[00:12:12] Like he had this like weird, swoosh, Che. Like a poltergeisty kind of face now. Oh my God. And it was like, and then tattoo people were like, hey, you know, you have to be careful about like body because like your body will change shape
[00:12:26] and then like if it's a face... I feel like snake is not too bad, right? Because it's not that detailed if it's the tail. The snake is very, it's just like a blocky. It didn't look that detailed on the top either, so... But I just... Right.
[00:12:37] My question is just, is his whole penis the tail of the snake or not? I guess that's the question. Like is it... If it was my call as a character designer, I would have the tail going down the top. That's my... That would be your call.
[00:12:49] That's the idea. I'd do just the surface, just the top. Or if you're feeling really extreme, have the tail go around. Oh, that would be fun. Coiled. Here's the more important question. That would be fun. Yes, that would be fun. I'd be creative use of space.
[00:13:02] That also, I do feel like would make the reaction more interesting. Is that crazy interesting? Well, that would be probably... Exactly. Again, you're stretching the skin and I don't know what that looks like when... Sure. Right. And also, is he a grower? Is he circumcised once?
[00:13:16] Where's this ending? And is he a grown-up? Because if he's a show-er, then you're probably alright. Let's be honest though. We just got a long tongue. What? Plisken's probably both. He takes it out and you're like, that's a big soft dick.
[00:13:30] And then it gets hard and you're like, whoa! There's more! Yes. This is of course a show where we talk about penises in film. It's Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. I'm David. Donk Check. Donk Check. This is a podcast about filmographies.
[00:13:45] In earnest, it's about filmographies. Directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks and make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they escape from New York baby.
[00:13:57] And this is a mini-series on the films of John Carpenter, calling it They Podcast. That's right! I want it to be called Pudskate from Newcast. Yeah, that's good. Thank you. That's not good. No, it's good. It's good. No guest is right. Karen Han, thank you very much
[00:14:17] for returning to the show and validating the right opinion. Thank you for having me back. This is Escape from New York. Is what we're talking about. Yep. 1981 John Carpenter film starring Kurt Russell as Snake Pliskin. Now, can I say something? Who has a snake tattoo on his chest
[00:14:37] and possibly penis, but we don't know. We don't know. I assume he had the makeup people do it onto his penis even though it didn't show. What if it were worse if you saw that guy and then he took off his pants and it just faded out
[00:14:48] and it didn't go in the direct? I would think that would cowardly. Yeah. Right, I would think that would cowardly. I guess what would even be worse is if it didn't even fade out. It's just a severe cut-off. It just stops. What if you
[00:14:58] somehow shaped your pubic hair to reflect? Ooh. Like, I don't know. Like it's coming out of a thicket? Yeah. Well, I had said like a basket because it's a cobra. Uh-huh. So I think that would kind of be a fun motif.
[00:15:11] If you went to someone and you were like, I need a wicker cap? A wicker cap? Yeah. I also need to know how to maintain this for after. Right, and then I'm going to need a perpetuity. You got to get a shape up every once in a while.
[00:15:23] One, Kurt also recently in Guardians 2, of course, bragged about the fact that his character had a penis on screen. Sure, this is a thing I was going to build a bridge to go on your second point. Oh, you're going to build a bridge to it?
[00:15:34] But two, it just strikes me as the kind of guy if I sat down with him and I'm like, hey, you know, overboard was that funny? He's like, ah, we had a great time. And I'm like, so, you know, Snake, like does the snake go all the way
[00:15:43] to the penis? You have to build up to that. He'd be like, sure it does. Like, you know, right? Like he's thought about it. Would Snake Pliskin, he paints the underside of the drawer? Snake Pliskin is his guy. He loves him.
[00:15:52] So you probably, yeah, of course he does. Yeah, come on. Or does it go around? Or does it go around, Kurt? Anyway, Kurt Russell plays, of course, Star-Lord's father in Guardians of Galaxy 2. Yeah, Ego the Living Planet. Yes. And there was an interview with him.
[00:16:05] I remember reading where he said, like, you know, I wasn't really into these superhero movies. I didn't see them. And then they sent me this first one after they offered me a part. And like from the moment he like is picking up the alien and singing
[00:16:17] into it like a microphone, I went, I get it, this guy's doing what I was doing in the 80s. Now here's what I think is interesting. As you said. A high compliment from him, obviously. A high compliment. And that was the moment where
[00:16:29] everyone liked Chris Pratt for a minute there. Right. And it did feel like he was being pretty savvy in his characterization of how he fit into these blockbusters, you know? And even like, I would give him at the time. Because that was really like right
[00:16:44] post-Parks and Rack, right? He's like literally just coming off Parks and Rack. We're still kind of rooting for him. Right. And he's having this good like supporting actor Ron on a Ferris. Zero Dark 30. Five-year engagement. Wanted, of course. He gets hit in the face of the
[00:16:59] keyboard and his teeth. It says fuck you. Come out and it says fuck you. That's some open and credits cucking, right? He definitely has like very sweaty chubby sex with someone. Waits no time. But yes, people are rooting for him, right? And I think it did feel like,
[00:17:13] oh, he's doing this kind of thing I think her Russell's doing. Where there was a certain degree, he is deflating the action star at the same time that he's upholding it, you know? Right. What I do think is interesting is that Star Lord, and then this
[00:17:31] kind of becomes D. Rigor for the Marvel movies, it's like, you don't have the guys be a genuine badass, right? The entire universe keeps on deflating them. And much like Snake Plisken, it's like, oh, our biggest action stars. They don't really fight that much.
[00:17:49] You know, you're like, well, like Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth fight. But I don't think about Star Lord fighting. He's not, I don't think of him as a great fighter. Right, exactly. And likewise, Iron Man, it's like, I think of a video game character shooting lasers.
[00:18:06] Well yeah, he does his apps and stuff. Right. I'm not like what a martial expert Iron Man is. Like, Iron Man degrees a movie where he is going in and having to come at and shit like that. But it is this funny thing where
[00:18:15] like, that has become the type now which feels like the multiple decades later, evolution or devolution of the Kurt Russell thing where it's like, and this is the thing Kurt Russell said in this interview, he was like, when I was doing those movies at the
[00:18:28] time, people didn't get it. You know? And I see that he's doing the same things and taking the same risks I'm getting. It's very exciting to me to see that it's like accepted by the public, you know? But I do think there's a stronger telegraphing of the
[00:18:44] joke in the Marvel movies versus like a snake Plisken where, yes, part of it is like, is this guy for real? You know? This is not on topic at all but speaking of the Russell family interviews, I love that Kurt Russell's like, yeah, I don't really watch those.
[00:18:59] But there was like an interview that Wyatt Russell did for Falcon and the Winter Soldier where he went on and they interviewed, I think it was Jimmy Kimmel was like, so were you like a huge fan of like the Marvel comics as a kid because everyone in that
[00:19:09] series is like, yes, I love comics when I was growing up. And then Wyatt Russell was like, well, I played sports so no. It was just incredible. This one, Wyatt Russell is, he's special. I think that guy's really good. Because he has that weird kind of
[00:19:22] like, hey man, what's up? Like Kurt Russell thing going on. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. When he was... When he was... F**k everybody wants him. I was like, who is this guy? This guy is magnetic and then it's like, oh, he's Kurt Russell and Goldie Hansen.
[00:19:35] I also think, I mean, I think Falcon and the Winter Soldier totally sells about in the final episode. It's a horrible series. I mean, I don't like that show that much. I thought he was good. It's a weird role. This is what's happened. I started out that series.
[00:19:50] You were into it. You're more into it. Well, I started out and I was just like, f**k it. This is the exact Marvel sh**t, whatever. There should be a movie. This shouldn't be eight hours long, whatever. And as it was going on, I
[00:20:00] was like, f**k, are they like doing this or are they pulling it off? And then the last episode bailed out everything I thought was interesting about it in a way that totally killed my vibe. But... I think it was a really good performance by him.
[00:20:11] Oh, I was going to say, why? So, so funny. I was like, I don't know. I think genuinely kind of incredible in that until they sell out his character. His Emmy nomination is for Space Jam too. That's true. Yeah. Right. Well, Algae Rhythm raked the
[00:20:23] Emmys to get him a nomination for Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He's hosting them. Algae. Yeah, I heard of Pete was also nominated in 12 categories this year. My point is I think the White Russell performance in that is very interesting just because he is playing this
[00:20:37] guy who is trying to very hard to be like a Hollywood action star. The character is interesting and it's also like I thought this with both him and with Florence Pugh and Black Widow where it's like, oh, like when someone really has charisma, it makes a huge fucking
[00:20:51] difference. Yeah. Yeah. But I also I admire how dark he genuinely goes on that show, you know? Anyway, anyway, anyway, look, Kurt Russell. Did you introduce our guest? I can't remember. I did. Karen Hunt. Peter Stubbins here, I'm here to do a live. We're going to talk about
[00:21:16] this for the first time. You're here. I am here in person. In person. People on Reddit. Great way to start an extension. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm excited to see where the people right now. I'm very happy we're doing this in person. We've had a fun run of
[00:21:29] doing these being able to do a bunch of these in person, which has been much better. And then now we realize like oh, we booked like 10 consecutive long distance And you know like obviously there's more in person opportunities.
[00:21:40] But on the Reddit Blankies as they are want to do obsessively monitor letterbox activity and put together that both you and David had rewatched this movie very close to each other
[00:21:53] and you had to be the guest and then everyone was sort of pointing out like oh that makes perfect sense big KB energy in this movie. I had not considered why you picked this other than that. It's a good movie.
[00:22:07] Yes and you know beyond that you know you were one of the people we gave a slot to obviously in March Madness last year and then when Carpenter 1 we went out to most
[00:22:20] of the people who we had given that sort of a slot to and gave them an early pick on this or you know an earlier series or whatever but you just immediately wanted this is that the main juice of the movie for you is the is the Borg 9
[00:22:32] Herodine Stanton Pleasance. I actually like sort of forgot until I watched it again last night where it was like it just is a good movie and it's so it snake is so iconic and it's just a
[00:22:42] cool movie and that was my reasoning for a pick for it but watching it it's like oh yeah this is just full of premo dudes he's so hot he has a face like an anime villain does this make sense yeah it does where it's like he if
[00:22:57] he was in neon Genesis and Kaleon to be like yeah that's totally correct and like you know westerns are the anime showdown with the faces and the noises everything about him is good he has the coolest fucking name he has the coolest
[00:23:13] face he nothing he does is bad the earring is the most important costuming choice in the history of Hollywood yeah why does he have an earring he's like the police commissioner and this fucking sexy asshole with these cheekbones
[00:23:30] that are at like a 20 degree like they're so arched my father once referred to him as the man with the gunslit eyes yeah he's got this very very very like impressive sort of he's got a section of his face like forehead to nose the
[00:23:46] fucking iconic I mean it's like becomes one of the most legendary shots in that you're able to construct a sequence of him looking out of the tension of his eyes just taking up a widescreen but then he turns and you're like
[00:23:58] yeah I wish he was my dad yes sir yeah absolutely sir I'm gonna ask an embarrassing question does he have a tiny ponytail in this or do I always just add that he doesn't have a tiny ponytail with the earring I always think
[00:24:23] there's like a little like bow finger ponytail in the back well he's got this sort of and now I'm looking at pictures of him yeah it's time but you know yes he's got this kind of like no it's just longer okay okay for a bald guy
[00:24:39] I mean it's cool that he's kind of what carpenter I was about to say he basically looks like John carpenter now with just carpenters hair is not as curly yeah but like apart from that it's like
[00:24:50] what are his hobbies what are Lee Blank Lee's hobbies what does he like to do kicking ass and taking yeah you're right he's not with us anymore right no he's dead right he was still with us almost like 130 he died when he died in 1989
[00:25:06] 64 it's not right I would be in his like he would be very old now he'd be in this like late 90s but he yeah he was born in the 20s what were his younger than
[00:25:15] I would have thought yeah oh I'll tell you he began a business in interior decoration with second wife Joan as well as pursuing his talent for painting primarily of sea and landscapes I'll tell you this though he's buried yeah in
[00:25:28] Hollywood Hills he's buried at the Forest Law Memorial Park cemetery in Hollywood Hills and his grave marker reads best of the bad referring to many performances as villains yeah over the years best of the
[00:25:42] bad cool fucking guy was the bad yeah he sure was we love him yeah in this movie but yeah he is one of many potential KB's that their fans were identifying because Karen you like I mean do we have to reallocate this certain sort of
[00:25:59] energy by you might be a little sick of talking about no I love talking well I actually haven't had to talk about it for a while because I haven't done my yearly KB video for a while just having at the time to do you you
[00:26:08] skipped in 20 I mean 2020 just sort of a tough year to that's also true I would argue a bad year for KB's I feel like we lost a lot of face heavy character actors earlier generation in 2020 am I wrong about that probably a lot of
[00:26:24] old people died so I guess that's true yeah I will say that I mean obviously like both for COVID and unrelated reasons yeah I feel like we lost a lot of people of a generation yeah I think it was a disastrous year for KB's
[00:26:37] because I'm not necessarily thinking of specific ones we lost well yeah tough year for movies yeah last year so yeah not as many good movies yeah that's true and that's just gonna rob us of opportunities for boy oh well new
[00:26:50] KB's sure yes right well I mean that's always a tough category yeah new people that under the people really have to pay their dues an agent yeah I mean the last one I did was in 2018 so it really has been a while yeah this year
[00:27:03] could be huge I mean if I get back on what is backlog I mean yeah what am I gonna do it doesn't have to be three year retrospective if I do whatever you want you have the power it's sort of your thing it's your category the
[00:27:20] hope magic of it in my opinion is that it's not defined or codified like people can move in and out it's up to you it's very subjective so I remember a while ago I mean there's a I always tweet about my crushes but then somebody
[00:27:35] responded to being like Karen this is just some man and I was like well yeah that's the category I don't even remember Isaac Hayes KB I guess Isaac Hayes became a sort of problematic figure later in life yeah I'm just looking at
[00:27:53] some KB's but Harry Dean Stanton well right the thing about him is he's looked old for his entire life like if you go on Google image search you see you go Harry Dean Stanton young it just doesn't exist like even the pictures of him
[00:28:06] when he's young he like looks like at least 45 he sure does yeah I mean it's the impressive it's the eyes it's the sort of sunken eyes he has where he just looks he's got so sweet like a sleepy boy sweet little eyes look at him
[00:28:19] he does he's got those king shark eyes so we're talking about escape from New York yeah I'm sorry I was just trying to like clock some some KB celebrity deaths Terry Jones yeah Jerry Stiller yeah I totally enjoyed Terry Jones time that
[00:28:36] sad yeah he did love Terry Jones yeah well I feel like that was even sadder because like then everyone tried to book Michael Palin on their show and talk about it because they were best friends here's a question Michael Palin
[00:28:47] is he's all time so so so sweet my favorite was Max von Sido a KB or is he too pretty yeah no no he's in the so getting me pretty though yeah he was
[00:28:59] Brian Danahe yeah absolutely right I mean we lost a lot of KB's yeah Buck Henry sure Ian home yeah yeah he died but this is the thing and then you'd be like was it COVID it's like no they were in there like late 80s I suppose you're
[00:29:16] right certain generational wrecking right there yes you know people just get on yeah I mean Harry Dean Stanton also passed away fairly recently he was very old wasn't he yeah 91 years old 2017 James Lipton yeah okay Karen has a glass
[00:29:31] of water and I'm waiting for the one that will make her do his bit Hugh Kees burn yeah Regis Regis I liked Regis that's I agree with that I don't think we're gonna be calling Regis sexy but we like Regis little Richard I don't
[00:29:54] escape from New York yes yes it's a film by John Carpenter correct correct is this this is the first one with John Carpenter's I believe that's right where he is right now fully marketable as a term he's just a cool dude he's a pretty cool
[00:30:11] dude can't deny it he had made the film Halloween which was very successful very successful so that's his guarantor if you will and then the fog also while not as well post Halloween seismic is a big hit he's got the fog which does well he
[00:30:27] did all this of course on television which did well and Kurt Russell's that's Kurt Russell sort of transitory project into serious acting right it's that in used cars which we've covered in the past and those are sort of him building
[00:30:39] the bridge to adulthood adult movie stardom and then this is the thing that I think finally codifies it I was checking what year use cars was just a double check it's 1980 I just put used cars into Google came up yeah a bunch
[00:30:54] of cars for sale yep use cars any good deals I know isn't it like a terrible time to buy a car I think so I think there's like yeah because all the rental companies when they couldn't rent out cars sold a lot of the cars but then
[00:31:09] now they've been buying up all the used cars I think there's a run on cars so you should just buy a new car now but I think those are hard to get cuz like you can't get a microchip because COVID or what you know what I mean we're
[00:31:20] like supply yeah yeah I've heard that too anyway yeah we have the world's yes I was just gonna say you know Elvis was the first time it felt like that perhaps a director had really latched on to what Kurt Russell could do right because
[00:31:41] even used cars is kind of casting him as a subversion of the Disney trope right it's he's a manic you know Charmer but who's a shyster and kind of a horn dog
[00:31:52] right he's a got a cute face for TV but he's not to be trusted and carpenter was sort of like people don't realize how fucking good Kurt Russell is like I worked with this guy he did this major fucking very long TV miniseries movie
[00:32:08] playing a wildly iconic person and he went so hard did so much research nailed it he should really be taken seriously but it's a TV movie right there's still very much as a ghetto to those at the time his first thought as we said
[00:32:23] is going to someone like Tommy Lee Jones who's an obvious fit for this or someone like Charles Bronson who you know had done too many movies like this well that did you saw the quote right carpenters like I was afraid of working with him
[00:32:35] he was a big star and I was this little shit nobody as absurd as that like post Halloween for him to think Chuck Bronson was a big deal at this and as you said it would have become a Charles Bronson like just scary dude
[00:32:53] scary yeah the Simpsons joke one of my favorites of all time which is where it's like where Charles Bronson is like a stand-in on like the Phil Silvers that would now I have to find it and it's like alright I feel like he was
[00:33:05] notoriously kind of nice but he looks so angry on the Andy Griffith show that's what it is okay don't you remember and like what happened to and he's like I shot him yes I'm like what now I'm gonna go to like Eddie's fix it to fix
[00:33:19] Eddie or he had jokes that he's Barney fights your place yes right okay yes he was just a guy who looks so intimidating and certainly if you're John Carpenter and you're fairly young in this guy's been a movie star for decades and has his
[00:33:31] own fucking thing figured out I imagine to be a little bit of like what you hear with you know later period Bruce Willis where he's just like I'm not gonna listen
[00:33:41] to you you know I know what I'm doing I'm Bruce I'm Bruce was I want Lentz or to use for this huh you understand movies okay you guys do you talk about the Karen do you know this no that's apparently the Bruce Willis thing that
[00:33:55] he like tests them on the first day about how well they know their lenses and if they get it wrong he's like you know you're talking about never listen to you again right people will be like people will be like I worked with
[00:34:11] Bruce Willis is fucking nightmare and then someone like West Aniston will be like I don't know I found him a sweetheart oh man and it's just like West nailed the lens test right same with Ryan Johnson yeah and Tommy Lee Jones Steven Soderberg
[00:34:24] oh it's an iPhone Tony Lee Jones two short walk cameras confused when he cast Russell and I think a the industry was like really I know you liked the guy and you had a good time with him on the Elvis movie but come on this is like a
[00:34:39] whole different thing and I even just imagine in terms of marketing for the movie it must have been sort of like he's nowhere on the marketing for the movie right the movie I mean obviously it's very iconic poster but yeah it's
[00:34:50] all selling you on what if New York was a big prison which is like an insane concept to open your movie with where it's like minute one he's like all of Manhattan is a prison island it's like holy shit yeah it's the best yeah it is
[00:35:03] truly the best those graphics like all of the graphics in this are so great you guys know the wireframe thing right they well I died certainly do maybe maybe you guys getting like the computer view of the city as the plane is
[00:35:17] going I took Ben and I went to go see this at a drive in a couple months ago Robocop escape from New York double feature which was a real Ben and Griff night yeah it was a lot but and Robocop does a very similar trick but when
[00:35:29] they are flying the plane over the buildings he could not afford the they couldn't actually do that would be that's like as advanced as expensive as like I mean Star Trek has the one shot of a hand that costs like a million
[00:35:41] dollars probably that they had to license for med catmull so it is just like a Godzilla sized model of a city that was painted jet black and then they put green reflective tape over it and it's completely analog looks so cool it
[00:35:57] looks so fucking cool Robocop does the same thing when Robocop has thermal vision when the guy who lost the mayoral election is like holding everyone hostage where they're wearing bodysuits that just have thermal imaging painted on them now we should mention who was the photographer
[00:36:15] in charge of photography for the special effects and Matt and stuff with Jimmy C. Jimmy C. Yeah boy we'll talk about it we'll talk about but here we're getting ahead of ourselves okay okay so what I think JJ pulled up in the
[00:36:28] the original I don't know if there's the original draft for the original conception of the movie it was only supposed to be six years in the future it was he wrote it in nineteen with the mid-seventies right
[00:36:40] set it in 82 right this was in that batch we've talked about a couple times already we're post-dark star no loss I hired him to direct let me write a bunch of scripts try to get some stuff made so it's this it's what becomes
[00:36:51] eyes of Laura Mars that Western he was gonna do with Elvis and John Wayne amazing which sounds so cool but this seemed to be the one that he always liked the most and was hoping he would get to do like this one most I gotta say the
[00:37:04] other one that sounds cool is the Prometheus crisis which is a nuclear meltdown movie yeah and whatever you know he couldn't get it going it's like a nuclear meltdown haunted house that's how he described it a haunted house movie
[00:37:18] set in a nuclear plant which is had a deal for this this was going to be his thing after the fog right and then it got sort of caught up where he realized like his salary got put in escrow and he didn't believe that they
[00:37:28] were ever actually gonna make it or whatever sounded like you had some some kind of less than honest upstart producers who bought the rights to this thing but then we're sort of just using it to be able to promote his name to get
[00:37:44] other projects off the ground and then he couldn't make it cuz you can never get the rights back from them yeah but yes he had this script escape from New York I think it may have initially been called something else or New York is
[00:37:57] I can't remember Nick Castle who is the co-writer and of course who plays Michael Myers the shape and who eventually directs last movies on apparently kind of made it funnier yeah Carpenter's quote is basically like my movie was really grim
[00:38:13] and he sort of gave it a sense of humor which is pretty crucial breakthrough for carpenter cuz I feel like after this point carpenter taps into his own sense of humor I think he starts to realize the value of adding that
[00:38:26] whereas the earlier movies apart from Dark Star are pretty not funny right right Dark Star is funny but then the fact that people didn't find it funny kind of terrible both of them yeah escape from New York so you know and then
[00:38:41] obviously you know I mean the Halloween success yeah the fog to a lesser extent but you know just means he can do a movie now I mean this movie is made cheaply but I brought up the six years thing just cuz I find it
[00:38:53] interesting that it does not sound like his adjustment was oh I want to set it further in the future so that society has decayed even more it's that his original script had this level of decay and he was like six might be a little
[00:39:07] quick like he just subtle but significant change right cuz he was like I think about 17 years ago that's more of a significant yeah back in my mind right yeah anyway and you know whatever he was wrong is in a prison
[00:39:24] I live yet it is funny that I feel like the last six months of like the fucking conservative think peace people being like New York is dead it's a husk of what it once was they're all trying to make it sound like it's this now yeah that
[00:39:39] post like COVID New York is escape from New York but we're not wearing clothes we're all scantily clad yes what a stupid article truly bad huh you know it's bad what everything so come on now what about this but this movie is good the
[00:39:58] podcast is okay it's just so funny things like New York's a prison island out and also the president crashes in there it's like pretty quick thing at once really it's true yeah and those poor fuckers on that plane by the way we
[00:40:12] cut to the plane yeah and the president's like so what are you we're gonna do and they're like I ain't and he's like put me in the pod then that plane crashes they're all dead all the other ones I do find it funny that like he was just
[00:40:26] like I don't know just felt like a good part for pleasant right pleasant this is like also like arguably the least distinct president of all time like if he was the president and someone sent me in there was like you have to find
[00:40:40] like I can't do right like I don't know what he's a dude yeah he's like a sort of a big bald dude kind of looks at you funny like apparently pleasant got really
[00:40:52] in his head about like okay so I need to do the character work to justify how a brick become president he came to him was like I figured it out 16 pages so Maggie Thatcher at this point oh my god he tried to explain why a British
[00:41:03] sounding guy would be president it was like okay thank you very much like I mean I have no intellectual explanation for why cast him he mentions his performance in called to sack where he played a victim out of
[00:41:19] place but he also says he's one of my favorite actors of all time so it's just he likes Donald Pleasant likes Donnie I also think like his his British accent more generally just kind of like reads as like this pronunciation
[00:41:33] transatlantic but it just like I'm like what fucking nation at war is like this is the guy whatever that sort of makes sense in that at the end they're like yeah we don't really need him like we just need this thing well but isn't it
[00:41:49] kind of the thing that I think is another theme that really starts with this movie for Carpenter where it's like anti-establishment right and I feel like he is like an ineffective president he's a really bodies that part yeah and I
[00:42:03] mean his payoff with him at the end is great I love Donald Pleasant's to death he's the best he's beautiful he's beautiful boy he's beautiful shiny well they do clean up well he's like a fucking cute ball
[00:42:27] so wait I'm trying to go you know there's this right they have this deal with Avco embassy for the fog and another movie right okay and they had some other movie maybe they were gonna do and it wasn't happening and I remember he had
[00:42:40] sold it to them just as a script and then the idea of him coming back and saying I want this to be my next directorial project was it some other thing stalled out and he's like why don't we just do a skate right why don't
[00:42:50] we just yeah just let me do it right had seven million dollars which was his biggest budget ever but it's still not obviously a big big budget sure and they shot it in st. Louis because they needed a city they could just treat
[00:43:04] like shit where they're like hey you got like a few blocks we can just like light on fire and they were just like we're gonna tear all this down I mean that's also kind of the fun thing where it's like this is not distinguishable as New
[00:43:14] York like at all like there's nothing in there I mean especially not once they're on the bridge and you're like what bridges like the poster the poster is so heavy on like Statue of Liberty takes up more great image but
[00:43:30] like not only that you're getting like no New York landmarks and the poster is like starring the Statue of Liberty and Kerr Ross or they're like this used to be the public library right no it did well but no that's what for key companies
[00:43:42] like are they in Grand Central I'm like yeah I guess sure that could be what this is right but it works just because you're like what I don't know everything's gone to shit carpenter it's really okay and then just coasting
[00:43:57] yeah St. Louis looks a lot like destroyed New York this is carpenter in addition to having the architecture of an Eastern City they let us shut down the street set him on fire crash an airplane do anything we want it I guess they just
[00:44:10] yeah you like you said they just had these few blocks where it's like look these are going to be raised anyway they're completely delinquent or I don't know what I don't know what was going on and then they shot the whole damn
[00:44:22] thing at night yeah which I love they weren't doing day for night they had develop I believe some new lenses to be able to shoot that much at night without having to blow the budget on lights yes the greatest of all time and he is the
[00:44:37] greatest of all time and now we've talked about so many Dean Cundy movies yeah although we've never done Jurassic Park but like that shot where I tweeted it but like where where snake is in the glider yeah and it's red
[00:44:49] behind yeah the sexiest and it's nothing and I'm a patootie yeah we find him cute in like an Ewok way yeah I think you find cute and like a boyfriend well he works can be boyfriends yeah I mean like
[00:45:08] wouldn't you want to give him a hug after a hard day absolutely absolutely little cuddle yeah no he looks very good I was really nice talking love a plush Dean Cundy I'd love a tickle me Cundy that they indeed had a panavision 1.59
[00:45:24] stop lens which could shoot low light and large right they had to figure out how to expand the stops on yeah Ernie Borg 9 there's some quote in here is like boy I'm not used to rolling in at 6 a.m. and still be in sober every quote yes just
[00:45:39] what is the light or I don't know if you know this I'll lean in and just whisper this interior as quietly as I so the mics don't pick it up yeah I'm coming my hands around okay so no one's gonna hear this okay David I don't
[00:45:53] know if you know this but he liked to masturbate a lot he's in one of the what's up with that's right yes he's so I remember him being so funny yeah
[00:46:05] you know he does like one yes it was red was coming out the movie red was and I think it's him and Morgan Freeman or him and another guy in red incredible yes it's Morgan Freeman right it was like they clearly were doing some red press
[00:46:19] both of them in he's adorable I mean Arnes Borg 9 has one of the cutest smiles of all the reason I think it's so good yeah I like what's up with that always but it's the one where he really seems delighted to be part of the
[00:46:34] fictional show what's up with that and he's like loving all the dancers every time they interest a new character he's just like his eyes I'm wondering I'm just watching it right now and he starts off at 10 yeah he's great he's
[00:46:46] already laughing and it's only the title screen like Morgan Freeman has more of a vibe of like what is this thing that I'm doing I don't like being here and there's for nice like this is great I'm gonna jerk off about this like I just think
[00:47:00] I'm sorry I'm sorry I apologize we all know that if you don't Google Ernest Borg 9 talking about his masturbation habits on what was it the today show or something like something like that's the same my wrong about
[00:47:13] that he was on what he was on a morning show and they go like Ernie you're 93 look great what's your secret my lens in covers his mouth and then very loudly says I like the masterbate a lot it is indeed Fox and France yep oh no it's
[00:47:31] incredible is one of the greatest things that has ever happened on television that's incredible how old was he when he did this it was like two years no it wasn't it was early 90s right yeah it was in 2008 so I guess he was probably
[00:47:42] like in his no he was thank you this is what I'm saying he was absurdly old he was certainly old and he just threw up he was married to Ethel Merman right yes he was like maybe 42 days weird as Hollywood marriage of all time their
[00:48:01] time together was mostly spent hurling profane insults at each other and both later admitted that the marriage was a colossal mistake God like that's the Malcolm and Marie I want to see yeah where it's like right just imagine how
[00:48:15] much fun it was take this picture yeah absolutely just the pure privilege 2004 so he's in his late 80s is is doffing a naval cap I believe he served in the Navy but he's sort of giving it a milady tip yeah it's sort of half off
[00:48:42] his head at an angle with just a big older and he borgnein smile I mean I him there is no old man who has ever he's so old that he served in the Navy
[00:48:54] before World War two and then when World War two happened he like came back you know you need me get the masturbation hammock there's no old man who looks more like a kindergarten or than Ernest Borgnein
[00:49:15] just showed it looks that looks like a fucking school picture day right no pictures but he's about to you know set up Elsa and Kristoff in frozen or he looks like a little troll like he looks like a little rock yeah I mean oh Elsa
[00:49:32] and Krista I can't honor and Chris who else is like he's a delight like at him it's I'm a construction he's got a hat for safety Karen no I like it I know you know I mean it's oh my god talk about an important decision that I believe
[00:49:51] magazine per cover which is don't miss Ernest Borgnein on the bus which appears to be about a reality show where he goes around on a giant bus what I mean that sounds good driving extreme or is he just like you get on the bus someone's
[00:50:06] driving and he's going around like hi I'm on Ernie this is my boss he's right we're going to Fresno today he's riding the top of the bus Teen Wolf style yeah he's hanging tan on the bus like Morpheus in the Beatrice reloaded he's okay
[00:50:18] I'm going to a description says he went around to greet his fans on this bus and I have found it seems like he is driving it he's driving it I don't know Ernie you're getting old I don't know if I want you driving
[00:50:34] when was this this was in 1997 and he did it in 1996 he was grand-pied he was a surprise 76 yeah the pictures are really really good I highly recommend you just Google Ernest Borgnein on the bus I can't believe
[00:50:51] that show existed God you know he died longer ago than I remembered when he was old I know he was old but I just I his passing feels like it was just yesterday that was in fact about nine because he's got such spirit he's got
[00:51:05] such spirit he stays with us he lives in our hearts forever yes also worked right up until the very end yeah I mean he was on box of friends right were you just so you forget what you're like this guy's never gonna die
[00:51:15] right well he dies in escape from New York it is sad I was gonna make it an incredible decision on Carpenter yeah part is to make my cabbie name him yeah give him a little cabbie cab yeah yeah and a little cab it's just a little
[00:51:37] yellow square really it's a real it's a real stout little car yeah real hat trick of good decisions for Carpenter well it's the same I feel like reasoning behind New York's a prison island and the president crashes on it right like
[00:51:50] it's the same logical stream yes yes absolutely escape from New York made I feel like in a similar way to his other movies where he's doing the score obviously he's collaborating this time incredible score yeah well collaborating
[00:52:06] this time with Alan Hoeth but big difference here is he was saying that like up until this point he did what was sort of the the standard for the time where it's like you know a director tells the composer I have this type of
[00:52:20] scene I need 80 seconds of music and you compose something and you time it stop watching you hand it to him right this was a movie where he was using videotape he was scoring to the film which was not often done at that point I think
[00:52:33] he used to just noodle around just go like here's my theme and I'll repeat it which is why so many of his movies have these like very potent earworm like I came up with one ringtone which I can reuse 18 times over the course of the
[00:52:47] movie you know the line that I like the J.D. Fred is Hoerth being like hey we should like press an LP of your score and Carpenter is like what it's a cool score man. It's the first time he scored in a picture.
[00:53:01] He said he still does most of his musical compositions improvisatory improvisationally but his process was starting to maybe formalize a little bit at this point as he was sort of accepting like oh maybe I'm really
[00:53:18] going to be the composer of these movies going forward and not just in order to save a little money in the budget. But he stills the self deprecating. He's like I'm cheap what can I tell you. You know he but yeah it is really impressive.
[00:53:30] I have this theme stuck in my head for four months since we went to the drive in. Can you can you give us a little piece. OK we're back from an ad. Sorry that's where the ad went. As Ben mentioned James Cameron worked on this movie.
[00:53:56] Young James Cameron Carpenter called him the resident genius. Right everyone was kind of losing their mind over this guy saying he was the future worked on like the matte paintings and the miniatures and stuff. JJ Abrams at a test screening of this film as a teenager.
[00:54:09] Yes asked if Adrian Barbosa's character had died or not because they did not have the scene the shot of her lying in blood and Carpenter is like I guess they didn't get that. Get Adrian on the floor. Covering blood. They did it in their garage.
[00:54:24] Yeah. Well it was a one shot shoot done in their garage. Isn't it why the J.J. Abrams is kind of like this fours gum figure. Well that's why when people are like why is movies so derivative. I'm like read about his life as a young boy.
[00:54:40] Like there's a reason. Right he enacted a change in Escape from New York. He forced them to do reshoots and then it's like Spielberg personally hired him and Matt Reeves to restore his like eight millimeter short films when he was a teenager. Right.
[00:54:56] Because he was like the resident eight millimeter kid. Yeah. I'm the eight millimeter kid. That's what he would say. This just reminds me of there's that thing going on on Twitter today where it's like this 16 year old's interested in cryptocurrency
[00:55:08] and it's this very very young looking boy and like a very blue suit. And it's ever it's like oh he's not gonna when he grows up it's not going to be good. It's not gonna be good.
[00:55:17] It's not gonna be good. You don't want to be in a little suit when you're there. No. You want to be a crypto kid in a little suit. So just a lot of. Please. I don't speak that way about David Starr. Oh I'm sorry. Right.
[00:55:29] Like brushing up against this movie. A lot of future Hollywood royalty. Yeah. And then he just assembles this crew of God character actors. Right. I mean we talked about Russell Lee Van Cleef. Yeah. Donnie Plez. Ernie Borg. Ernie Borg. Isaac Hayes is in there.
[00:55:49] Harry D. Stanton. Fucking Hayes. He's the Duke. He is so good in this. Yeah. The opening credits of this movie are just insane as like especially set to the score. You know as it's building and you're just like him too. He's also in this.
[00:56:05] It is hit after hit. Right. And then it takes all killers no fillers. It takes so long for most of the characters to get introduced. By the time Isaac Hayes comes in you're surprised again. Yeah. Like I've seen this movie multiple times.
[00:56:18] When I see them the credits I'm like oh right. And then when he shows up on screen I'm like oh right. Because you just kind of can't keep track of everyone. Do you like his car in this movie? Yeah. Absolutely. Do you like what he's done with it?
[00:56:32] I think he's really taken cars to the next level in that he is a fucking chandelier. The chandeliers are incredible. I didn't notice that actually. I always have been thinking about that. Also so funny at the end where you see someone
[00:56:45] like in the driver's POV and you see how much real estate the chandeliers take up like in your vision. It's terrible for practical. It's awful. I know there's not a lot of traffic on the road in prison in Manhattan. Yeah. No. There's no. Isaac Hayes I really love,
[00:57:04] well I love Tom Atkins we talked about him before. That was wonderful. I love- The most rectangular man. Very. He's a blocky man. Yeah. I love Frank Doubleday who is the guy who shot the kid in assault on precinct 13
[00:57:17] and this is like white Sonic the Hedgehog or whatever. Oh my God. He's so good. What's the character's name? Romero. Because there's also a Cronenberg. They're all named after like his horror buddies but he's Romero. He looks like a whole zombie.
[00:57:31] But his character really like is the first like one where he just looks like abnormal and you're like this is a weird fucked up future. It's funny because no one else really comes up to that level. No he is, he's definitely right punching
[00:57:45] at a weird, a higher weirdo rate. Most people are just kind of like- Dirty. You know right dirty crime people with like a crossbow. Right. Or some rocks. Just got like one weird article of clothing that presumably they stole or something. Someone's at the door.
[00:58:00] What was at the door? All right. This is not an ad break. I don't know, maybe it is David we don't know. David we don't know if very well might be. Who was it Ben? What'd you get? It was- I mean yes.
[00:58:13] She put it in the mail slot so I'll get it later. It was the wet Ransford? One of your worst characters. I don't know what you're saying character was someone who just showed up when we were recording. Escape from New York.
[00:58:28] Is that in 19, well here it says, is that in 1997? Yes. All right it's saying that, I'm sorry, it's saying Manhattan was turned into a prison in 1988, okay who knew? Does escape from the lake come out in 97? 96 I believe. It's kind of bummer you missed it by a year.
[00:58:47] And something we should mention too is New York. Because then it's like hey who knows maybe by 97 everything's fucking, you don't know. But I was gonna say New York is like a shit hole though. It's not in great shape. Oh you're saying in 1981, real New York.
[00:59:03] 70s, 80s, this is a bad time. Oh you're saying the real world, this is a rough period. Yes yes. But still Carpenter, it's still in good enough shape that Carpenter knows New York will not actually be- A prison island?
[00:59:16] We can't sell New York as bad New York right now. Well I think it's the bigger problem is just like people control, right? That's true too. So how are we gonna get free reign to lock down this many blocks to limit the amount of people going through?
[00:59:30] I mean there's something about how desolate New York is in this that makes it really weird. Brings up a lot of questions of how many prisoners do they send in at all. Do you go in there for everything? Like is it a cattle? He seems nice. Too cute.
[00:59:45] I just wanna also point out- You broke too many hearts. Oh. Australia was a prison island. So this isn't a completely preposterous idea. The thing about the Australian prison colonies, which were on reflection a little problematic. They would send kids for stealing bread.
[01:00:02] They just sent them maybe they should've stolen their bread. Well okay. Even if they only stole bread because some other kid was like you've got to pick a pocket or whatever right? You know at the end of Oliver Twist, the Arful Dodger is deported to Australia. I'm sorry.
[01:00:17] Who? Is this true? I can't track this anymore. That is true. I mean, yes at the end of Oliver Twist, the Arful Dodger is deported. That's the twist? That is. Everyone's like I love this Oliver guy but Charlie what's the twist? He's like the twist is crime big.
[01:00:36] But he's all the fucking way to Australia my friend. Book yourself a one-way ticket. Australia is much bigger than Manhattan. You know if you're gonna keep it Manhattan will eventually fill up. Australia very large. Problematic for a different reason than converting a current city into.
[01:00:54] Not your place right? I can't just be like you know what? That place over there. I will say I always. They're gonna love that when we send all of our prisoners over there. I'm gonna be super chill. Sorry. It's not gonna be any problems at all.
[01:01:07] I'm always a fan of this as like a dystopian storytelling trope where we're like oh we just gave up on this place. We're just. Army of the Dead style? Yeah I like that Army of the Dead. I like anything where it's like no one lives on earth anymore.
[01:01:21] You know like. Oh we fucked it up beyond repair. We fucked up beyond repair and that's just a write off now. It's just lawless. Right. But yes I do wonder it's like right if I commit like tax fraud am I kicked there or is there like maybe a.
[01:01:36] Is there a limit? Is Staten Island like sort of like maybe a slightly chiller prison? I don't know. Did you ever read, I wanna say it was Grant Morrison. Maybe I'm misremembering but it was an Arkham Asylum mini series. It's Grant Morrison.
[01:01:52] I mean Grant Morrison did the Arkham Asylum. I know he did one but I'm trying to remember if this is the same one but it was about like a white collar criminal. That's not correct. Okay. He was a white collar criminal who did some shitty financial crime right
[01:02:03] and then he pleads insanity. Oh. So that he can receive a lighter sentence and the irony is they send him to Arkham Asylum and it's such a fucking good premise where it's like this douche bag who like fucking managed a hedge fund
[01:02:17] and like ripped people off is like great. I'm just gonna spend three weeks in insane asylum. I'll be fine. And then he's in there with like deranged Batman super villains. That is a great idea. The Grant Morrison one is the Dave McKeen drawn one
[01:02:32] where it's like super, super impressionistic. I'm forgetting who wrote this one but I always feel like with. The Sears house and Sears there. Yeah amazing. Which is good. It's incredible. And there's like this escape from New York thing.
[01:02:44] I always wish they put that kind of thing in there where it's like, and here's the white collar guy who's way in over his head. There isn't as Karen was saying there's nothing like the simplicity of just like map of Manhattan. I'm like, I know what that is.
[01:02:56] And they're like, all right. All right. That's where the prison is like just draw a line. This movie is so good. It's setting up its like objectives, its stakes, its risks. Every dystopia after it is indebted to it's simplicity. And just, yes.
[01:03:14] Just how quickly they set everything up. Things like that throwaway line where it's like he got a purple heart in Leningrad and you're like what happened in Leningrad? Siberia? Like where it's just, we don't need to say anything else. We know we're at war with Russia or whatever.
[01:03:28] Stuff like that total throwaway stuff. The shot in the neck obviously is just like such a genius move. Oh yeah, well, Slim not improved it. But yeah, I mean they perfected that with Slipknot. Slipknot improved getting killed. Slipknot improved dying immediately.
[01:03:44] Yeah, in that sense he improved fucking up. But I just remember you saying that then where it's like, right that's how you solve why this guy does the thing. Right, yeah. Because like you're like- While retaining his outsider status. Why would he give a shit?
[01:03:59] He should just escape. Right there's no part of him that wants to do this. Right, no but you have to. But yeah it is. It really just, it's forcing him and it's setting a time. Right, the watch is great.
[01:04:08] It's just giving rules to this kind of like unruly place. Yeah, I love the time thing but it also is so funny that he falls asleep for a little more than half of it. He does. I mean he just takes a little nappy nap. A big nappy nap.
[01:04:20] And he's a tie-tied boy. That's like a real exhaustion nap. He's sleepy. Yeah. He's a little tie-tied. Yeah, he's a tie-tied boy but- We did our Riddick commenters. We did. And in both the third Riddick and in Pitch Black you kept on sourcing like
[01:04:33] why can't people just fucking make this? Like especially Pitch Black where you're just like, it's so simple. It's so straightforward. It's not over-complicating itself. It's within its means all this. Like this movie is so economic, you know? In every sense and just sort of just like blunt
[01:04:48] like here's the fucking setup. Here's the layout. Here's the deal and we're off. But it's also well because, yes the first 20 minutes in Lee Van Cleef is crucial to all that. Yeah. You're selling these lines. Crucial to everything arguably. You know, there's all this silliness.
[01:05:01] My father Lee Van Cleef. Snake is such a fucking badass. He's like sitting at that goddamn desk and he's just like president of what? I'm like fuck yeah. I think also when Lee Van Cleef is like, I'm gonna kick your ass out of the world.
[01:05:16] It's like what kind of threat is this? It's the best. It's the best threat I've ever heard of. It's incredible. It's just your ass- It's the two meanest mother fuckers. They do- The fact that that has not entered the lexicon is like a popular thing to say.
[01:05:28] It should. We should start saying it. I'm gonna kick your ass out of the world. They do kind of belong together. Yes. And they don't really, I mean Lee Van Cleef will admit it and Snake can't admit. Hawke is Lee Van Cleef's character. It's just Lee Van Cleef.
[01:05:42] But like they actually do seem like they'd probably get- They have similar worldviews even though Hawke is the man. Yeah. I hope so. There's a fascinating thing to me with like, I feel like by the 90s things sort of normalize a little more again,
[01:05:56] but like there was such a radical sea change in American cinema at least in the 70s right like New Hollywood and sort of the post-Brando generation of the method actors, naturalism taking over and movies getting messier and all this sort of shit
[01:06:13] that like a lot of these guys like Lee Van Cleef and Ernest Borgden who had like a very specific vibe they did that fit into an older studio system or specific genre that like doesn't really exist anymore. In the 80s they're in the zone where it's like
[01:06:27] what does this guy do now? You know? And like you saying Karen the thing about Lee Van Cleef like feeling like an anime character in this it does feel like that thing where like an anime series takes elements of Western culture
[01:06:40] and then puts it into its own weird like Eastern sci-fi sort of milieu where it's just like it feels fundamentally so right and so wrong that this old cowboy is sitting at like a fucking tech console telling a guy he's gonna kick him out of the planet.
[01:06:58] You know? Like same thing with Borgneim where it's like this movie gets so much juice I feel like of putting people in like slightly odd ill fitting positions. I mean like from the moment that the cabbie characters introduced you like what is going on here?
[01:07:11] Cause he's like sitting at the theater like so happy and then he's like you're snake plus kid. He is very chipper considering he lives in objectively a not fun place. But this is kind of a movie where every single performer has a different energy.
[01:07:25] Isaac Hayes in this movie is very much of this moment but you're like but he shouldn't be in a movie right? He shouldn't be playing a part like this. Like everyone just feels like they're sort of plucked out of somewhere else including Kurt Russell.
[01:07:38] And yeah, yes absolutely including Kurt Russell. Yes and any dream bar both. It made me think of Mad Max 3. What's the musician? Thunderdom. Oh Teenage Mutant. Teenage Mutant. Teenage Mutant. And she's so great in that too. There's something about like you know Isaac Hayes.
[01:07:55] We've never seen him in this context and then he's just like super fucking cool already as a person but he's so cool in this fucking movie and he's just a fucking badass. I believe that people would follow him. That's true. He's charismatic. Yeah. He's got a good hat.
[01:08:10] Yeah, sort of the John Wick method of casting right? Absolutely. Or it's like oh we'll just put Laurence Fishburne in there. John Wick deeply indebted to this. And I'm sure they would admit it and it's you're right where it's like you know what?
[01:08:22] Rather than have five minutes to talk about who this person is. Why don't we just cast X and everyone will get it pretty much right away. But I also think John Wick the first one. I mean you and I were talking about this the other day David
[01:08:32] but like the way now everyone is ripping off John Wick. Right, like John Wick has become one of three movies that everyone's trying to rip off. World building, that's what it is. There's something very, very precise about the way they do world building in that movie
[01:08:47] and the surprise of that film having world building when it doesn't feel like the kind of premise that would support it that now doesn't work when you're sort of replicating it. But there's also just something about how much like this movie the setup is so primal.
[01:09:00] And as you said it's sort of like every character is like a primary color. It's an immediate match of energy and actor persona. We don't need to know much. Right, exactly. It's the Prison Island, the Dukes in Charge. It's not like the Warriors where there's like tons
[01:09:12] and tons of factions that he navigates. Now if you would remake this movie it would be longer. And he would go from X place in the prison to the, you know like he would bounce to all these locations where it would be really distinct factions.
[01:09:24] Instead it's like he meets Ernie Borgnein. Then he goes and meets Harry. He's a cabbie, his name is Cabbie, he drives a cab. Right, and Harry's saying he's a brain, he's a big nerd guy. Right, yeah. He's great. It's also as you pointed out,
[01:09:35] where I'll sort of point it out in terms of like this would be longer for those of movie today. It's only an hour and like 40 minutes. It's beautiful. Yeah, nice short movie. It also ends, I mean we'll talk about it, perfect ending where it's just like okay.
[01:09:48] Cut to black. But this is what I'm saying, like people try to replicate this so much they don't understand what a key element of this film is weirdly restraint. You know and some of it I'm sure is limitations of budget and schedule production and all of this.
[01:10:00] That's the carpe as a thing. But even just in the basic construction of the story, you know? It's not overloaded with too many set pieces, too many action sequences. You know it is fascinating where you're like this is sort of an action classic.
[01:10:12] It's pretty simple, it's just like this is what's cool. Right, he has like one big like fucking fight in a boxing ring. But it's, I mean it's fair to say and I remember listening to the rewatchables about this podcast and Bill Simmons who I- About this movie.
[01:10:27] About this movie, sorry. Who I sort of appreciate as and this may be a hot take, like that's like a cable viewing dad take on things that I am, there's not attached to film Twitter and is not attached to, like where I'm like I am sort of interested
[01:10:41] to hear the perspective of it. I think that's the exact value. But where he's sort of like I really love Escape from New York, blah, blah, blah, but like it's not quite like the real action movie juice comes a couple of years later,
[01:10:50] I guess with like the Rambo sequels and somewhere action movies start to get super kinetic and super kind of just like exciting. But even like they live has so much more action than this does. He's not even putting, he's, I guess it's like a mild critique from him,
[01:11:05] but it's just true. Like Escape from New York is quiet and it's sort of a little more slowly paced and it's a lot of kind of shuffling around and sneaking and like often it's just sort of like a punch and then like, but that's great.
[01:11:20] It's like the rule. It's obviously it's not like- He barely uses his gun. He has like two scenes where he uses it maybe, right? It's not like full action movies don't exist at this point, right? Like Bruce Lee's entire career has happened.
[01:11:34] But I do think there is a purity to franchises where like we've talked about this as well, but like it's interesting when you watch like old horror movies, right? Like 50s horror movies. Like Universal, even older, right? Val Luton movies, German expressionists,
[01:11:50] anything sort of before maybe the 70s, you know? And maybe a thousand people are gonna come and correct me here. There are obviously outliers, but like a lot of them, the horror is the premise. Hell yeah. I mean like the haunting- Rather than its visceral scares.
[01:12:04] The haunting is so scary that, you know, but like there's not a lot of scares in it. You know, it's all tension and atmosphere. In the same way that like this can be an action movie, but it's all about the tension, the premise, the setup,
[01:12:16] rather than it is about like stunt work. Yeah, I mean, I think that's pretty well exemplified. There's that scene where they're driving the car that they stole like through a crowd of people and it's just, it's not like they're driving
[01:12:26] through them rapidly or even ramming that big barricade. It's very slowly and everyone's just wailing on the car as they go. Just throwing some shit at them. Like little action exists in this movie is not visceral. It's narrative. I feel like those guys are like,
[01:12:40] we live on Broadway because I believe they're on Broadway. When it's like, well what do we do on Broadway? If any fucker drives his car down here, we throw rocks at it. What else do we do? That's the only hint you get of like another faction.
[01:12:50] Well they're ventures. I mean, they're just, they're trying to get anything they can get their hands out of. Well also, not to mention, no one's coming to see their shows anymore. I mean, they're throwing rocks that they want people to pull into the Winter Garden. Yeah, thank God.
[01:13:00] Come on, no one mourns the wicket. What are they performing at that show? I don't know. It's something really weird. Well, I mean like if you go to... Seems like a review of... If you go to the train station, you'll see Zangief essentially fight whoever's around.
[01:13:15] Like that's what's going on at the wrestling ring. Right. And they're like, it's a classic two round fight. Round one, bats, round two, bats with spikes and a trash can shoot. We all know the classic progression of fighting. Well that's like gladiator shit though.
[01:13:31] They would do that, change weapons out. Like that guy's only strength is that he's really big. He's quite large. And he only has one move like in his moveset. It's only this. And it's slow. You're thinking of it in a video game,
[01:13:42] you're right because he also he tosses his shield because he has to do the two hand, but he's real slow. This of course is Ox Baker playing the role of Slag. Amazing. Slag is his name. You didn't know that? I did not know.
[01:13:57] I believe he was a professional wrestler for real slag. He's one of those guys who looks like... The name of my son Slag. He looks like he looks in this movie. Where you're like, oh let me see a picture of that guy casual.
[01:14:11] And you're like yeah basically he still looks like Slag. It's like the Santa Claus in the second season where I think you should leave where the actor's name is just Biff Whiff. Yes, I love that guy. Jesus. How? How? That guy's great. Oh he's wonderful.
[01:14:25] It's just that his real name is Biff Whiff. I understand these words mean different things in the world of wrestling, right? But it is just still jarring to look at Ox Baker's IMDB biography and have open with Douglas Baker, better known by his moniker, Ox,
[01:14:43] was one of the meanest, most vicious, hated and ugliest wrestlers ever. Wow. Where you're like, well when you speak of a wrestler that way you understand that's part of the appeal but when it's on IMDB and like next to bios like Jeffrey Wright is one of the most
[01:14:57] undersung actors of his generation. Ox Baker is so fucking ugly and mean. Everyone hates him. Ox Baker was famous for his Machiavellian eyebrows and his finishing move, the heart punch sometimes called the hurt punch after his famous catchphrase, I love to hurt people.
[01:15:15] I was gonna bring up his famous catchphrase. It's incredible. I wonder how long he worked on that. What did my catchphrase be? Yeah, so he's slag. Yeah, I mean the plot of escape from New York it's cause it's really, it's like five locations. It's very simple.
[01:15:33] It's a point A to point B movement. Well he lands. We should say like the when he first, the first building, right? Cause he crashes the plane, goes down, he goes to where he meets the cabbie, he goes then upstairs. Finds the crazy guy. Finds the crazy guy.
[01:15:50] And the president or whatever. Who has the tracker. Exactly and the briefcase or? No, no he just has the tracking device. Cause they shoot him to get the briefcase. Right and then that's the first time we actually just see some really scary, it's not, it's like sexual assault.
[01:16:08] Like really scary and fucked up. But the whole thing that's magic about Snake it's not that he doesn't care but he definitely is just kinda like alright. You know like and he just sort of like moving along. Right? Yeah. And he never seems that perturbed
[01:16:22] but he doesn't seem like he's into it either. He's just like here I am at work. And he's not even rushed though either. He's not even like his neck is gonna explode. Yeah. Yeah, he's not yeah and I feel like if I was like
[01:16:36] come on Snake he'd be like don't rush me. Sorry Snake. There's something about the fact that Snake and by extension Russell seems so unconcerned with trying to impress anybody. Yeah. You know? It's cause he's Snake fucking plus skin. He is Snake fucking plus skin.
[01:16:54] And so I guess then right, Kaby goes to see the brain. Goes to see brain. Goes to see brain and then I guess the only other little thing is there's the underground people. Yeah. Who come out of the sewers.
[01:17:05] I thought they might have come back later but no. I think they do but yeah. That's where we're like meet them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he runs away and. Yeah brain, I love brain. So brain is the Griffin Newman role here.
[01:17:16] Well yeah it's what I wanna age into 50 years from now. Right yes. But I just love how. It was like 50 years to hit Harry Dean Stan at 45. How immediately he coughs. Yeah I'm full of shit. I don't know. I swear. It's also nice that like. Leave me alone.
[01:17:32] Don't call me Harold please. Everyone knows Snake. Yeah. Which I love. Which is wild. Yeah it is wild. And also him and brain go way back. Yeah. He goes way back with everyone in this movie. But the repetition of Snake plus skin
[01:17:46] I thought you were dead just gets better every time. Also like do they get news on the prison island? Right, cause that begs that question. Otherwise why would they know? Does anyone I guess. Michael they thought he was dead before they even ended up on the island.
[01:17:59] I mean I like that no one ever. I guess he's. Expounds on that any further. Which is why it's good. I guess he's a war hero. Right. So maybe right they just thought he. Also like his crime is just like robbing a bank.
[01:18:11] Yeah well maybe he shouldn't have done that Karen. Maybe you know if you don't want to go to crime island. Which um. If you don't want to go to crime island don't steal that bread. That's true that's true. They shot that scene apparently.
[01:18:23] Like that ending up cutting of like basically how he ended up. In jail. Which I'm so interested to see though. I am because I assume that's sort of an opening but I prefer it where it's just. Oh yeah man this guy's scary. Right.
[01:18:37] It's just like a post-movie treat where you're just I just want a little more snake plus skin. Right. I wish I could have so much more Snake. The lack of substantial backstory the mystery of filling in the gaps in your head is so much better and the fact
[01:18:47] that like we'll get to it but like the movie ends so abruptly like it's like your perception of snake plus skin is this very small sliver this one mission how everyone else reacts to him you know but it's like where did they fucking pull
[01:19:01] him from where is he going to now you know. Yes. Yeah. Um brain he's hanging out with Maggie. It's nice that they do seem to like each other. Yes. I think to some degree brain weirdly respects the fact that plus can seize through his shit. Yeah.
[01:19:20] He respects it. Right. And he right he's not going to try and impress Snake. He knows that battle is lost but it's like he has anyone who believes the line of bullshit that he's selling is an idiot. Right. So it's like Plisken can see I'm a fucking moron.
[01:19:37] Right. The only reason he's succeeding on Crime Island is he's whatever. He can make gas. Yeah. He's got right he's got a couple of tricks. Fuel sores. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Got a Darryl B blood like things. He's got the Derek. Yeah. It's pretty cool. It's inside. Right.
[01:19:51] He drinks people's milkshakes. Yeah. He does drink people's milkshakes. Maggie look Adrian Barbo she's super quiet in this movie she's super steely but like she kind of works as like not an over the top like sort of gangsters mole character I guess. Yeah.
[01:20:07] All the anecdotes about the night shoots right which it really seems like everyone was talking about this as if this was a beyond unusual thing that you know A. you don't do many movies where it's all taking place at night and B. when you do you almost
[01:20:22] always shoot day for night and this was like a complete schedule adjustment for all of them and all of them in interviews were like it's like bizarre you're living like a vampire going to sleep and the sun comes up my entire internal clock is thrown off and Adrian
[01:20:36] Barbo was like yeah I like wake up every morning I go antique shopping. She was having a chill time it's true. Like totally she's the one person who seemed unaffected by this. Good for her. She's like what she baked a turkey and used the
[01:20:48] wishbone to like and put in her hair. Yes. Because she was like that's that's like seems like a good remedy. Yeah. No no no. Oh yes. No that's her character's wardrobe when she died started to bake a second turkey. Yes. To get another wishbone. Oh my God.
[01:21:02] She was like well. Yeah. I mean the wishbone again. And that made me have a huge crush on her. Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. She had also silver nail polish because she had imagined that Maggie had melted down batteries to use them as nail polish. That fucking rules.
[01:21:19] It does rule. Wow. We already talked about Donald Pleasant's writing a manifesto about how like Maggie Thatcher had colonized America. Whoever do explain it. Right so good. It's like you don't care about that at all but I would like to see the backstory of Maggie
[01:21:34] making her nail polish. That smiled yeah that's really good. Obviously Kurt this is the first Kurt and Carp. Kurt-Carp combo. Elvis is the best. Elvis is the best. And they just seem to absolutely love each other. Every quote is just them like lavishing praise on each other.
[01:21:51] I mean they both seem like really chill dudes. We're now John Carpenter's entire reputation where he's like I wish I didn't have to work and I could just play NBA Xbox. Right. This is true. But I can't say anything. Well it's like right now Carpenter's like
[01:22:04] right I just want to play Fortnite and Kurt Russell's like I just want to like not talk about politics and have wine in my wine my winery. Yeah. His top his top games lists are so funny because it's almost always the whatever new Assassin's Creed came out.
[01:22:21] He just like blockbuster games like popular. Yeah. He loves the movie. Wonder if I wonder if maybe he does that's a really good question. Who knows. Maybe he thinks they fucked it up. Yeah. What if he came out of retirement
[01:22:32] and he was like I have to course correct. I have to make the actual Assassin's Creed movie. It would be it would be sick though if he did a sequel to the movie. Yeah. Oh fuck. Yeah. Like the pirate one. Oh he liked Assassin's Creed.
[01:22:45] He would love to do a pirate movie too. He would fucking kill a pirate movie. They should let him do an Assassin's Creed movie at an escape from New York budget. Go like you have to figure out how to do this for seven million dollars. Totally.
[01:22:57] And you have to take a former Disney star. You have to take like Mitchell Musso or someone turn them into. Well OK so they go to the Duke's compound. Do you ever think about how John Carpenter is on the record as loving Fallout 76.
[01:23:11] So theoretically you could be playing it online and you could be playing it with John Carpenter. That game is boring. John why are you playing that game. It's so boring. He just seems like he likes to occupy his time now. Right. That's fair.
[01:23:24] It just eats up the hours for me. I shouldn't just follow it. So do you like Fallout 76. Well I haven't really played it but here's what John Carpenter said about Fallout 76. John. I almost just read his name out again. Fallout 76 is a glitchathon of a game
[01:23:37] stuttering and freezing but still fun addicting with its post nuke open world a big game with hit and miss missions despite its flaws I dig it. Just play the better Fallout. John there's other one. It's also bizarre. You're just describing Fallout. It's bizarre. He's just describing Fallout.
[01:23:51] John Carpenter's like opinions on video games just read like like game informer capsule reviews. This is so confusing. There's no real substance to his game opinions. It's just like I played it and I liked it. It's just stunning graphics.
[01:24:05] But the thing is I would read more of his game opinions. I would too. If you had like a podcast every week him growling about video games that sounds great. Yeah. He's not that the whole... Why this thing is like
[01:24:16] I know he's probably never gonna make another movie. Yeah. We'll talk about this as we go on but like he's younger than like Spielberg is or... It seems like he just wants to chill out. Right. Because it's I think if he right now is like
[01:24:27] I want to make a movie he could definitely make a movie. I don't know if he can make like a huge budget one but someone would. Like people are still obsessed with him. But like people are still obsessed with him. Let him make something tomorrow.
[01:24:35] Anything he fucking wanted. So I guess he just isn't into it anymore but like maybe something will spark for him. Maybe I don't know it's been like 11 years now. I don't know it was the one thing that right I think he really was miserable doing the word
[01:24:50] which we will get to. But there was like series across the JJ put at the end of the doc about because there have been for so long so many rumors about this one being remade and he's been so sort of like
[01:25:03] whatever remake it I don't care give me money. Yeah. And then he loves money. Because the one he gets a little possessive of and is like I really think it should be Kurt. That's I think the reason is because he knows Kurt cares so much about the character.
[01:25:14] Right. I may be oh but it is funny that on the other hand the Hideo Kojima was like I'm going to name my character snake and he's just going to look exactly like snake plus again and John Carpenter
[01:25:21] was like he seems cool so I'll let him do it. He's like that's a nice man. Yeah. They fucking sued. They did sue Lucas on over lockout which is a great movie. Which rules. Lockout rules. Lockout rules and it's so good. I just think that's fascinating
[01:25:34] because that never fucking happens. Like movies are ripping off other movies all the time. Yeah. And then you have like people who are like I wrote a spec script 15 years ago in the studio saw you never have like one movie that is very
[01:25:46] unofficially a remake of another movie. Right. But I wonder if Carpenter is just so ordinary where like other people be like see that movie and they be like hey and they call their agent and it's like you know what let me call the studio
[01:25:56] and the studio is like oh you know what I'll just cut you a check for 100 grand. Right. Where Carpenter was like sue those fuckers. But just while that like they won. Yeah. You got half a million dollars. He did.
[01:26:07] And then yes as you said Karen was just like well there's nothing solid thing but like I like that guy. Yeah he seems nice. The games are good. Lockout lockout is so good especially when you consider Guy Pearce is being called on to play Snake Plisken. Yeah.
[01:26:21] And it's that's interesting casting. It's a fun movie. Have you ever seen Lockout? I have not. It's a skate from New York but with a space prison. Yeah it's awesome. He has to break into space jail to save the president. Daughter. Totally different. Yeah. Space jail. Interesting.
[01:26:35] He's playing a Snake Plisken type where he's like I don't want to do it. You know like it's the same basic vibe. Okay. So it's good though. It's very cool. And the guy from This Is England doesn't it? He's quite good. Yes he's so good. He's amazing. Yeah.
[01:26:47] He's always good. Gilgen is he? Joe Gilgen. Joe Gilgen yeah. Who is a real Ben type in that he looks like he weighs 80 pounds and 40 pounds of that is tattoos. Yes. Yeah right. He's wonderful. He's a wonderful actor. I really love him.
[01:27:00] There's this I've talked about it before I think but there's the shot in Lockout where Guy Pearce is smoking a cigarette. And someone punches his head. He ducks off screen. And then when he comes back up the cigarette is bent at a 90 degree angle. It's so good.
[01:27:14] Who did you write to that? Some fucking Frenchy. But it's not one of the main Frenchies who then like it's not Olivier Megaton. It's not Olivier. It's no it's two people. Sorry Steve, Stefan, Saint Leger and James Mather. And what have they done since? I don't fucking know.
[01:27:31] Thought about how great Lockout was. Yeah that's fair. I hope they're patting themselves on the back 24-7. We made one really good one and now we can just hang it up. I don't know they did something called they've worked on Vikings.
[01:27:44] It's just weird they didn't do like five more Europa Corp movies. Yeah well I don't know Griffin. I can't tell you. I demand an answer. Yeah it looks like they've only been doing Vikings. Yeah this guy just does Vikings. Yeah well.
[01:27:59] Another show that I feel like Ben probably would like even though he doesn't watch it. Don't you like Vikings Ben? Do I like Vikings? Like in the abstracts? This is a punks of medieval time. Well are they? I don't know about that.
[01:28:10] Yeah I don't know how I don't have a Viking take. OK. I don't. There's definitely an Assassin's Creed game that's Viking right? The one that just came out that John Carpenter liked. There you go. It's fine. It's fine.
[01:28:22] It's kind of stupid but all those Assassin's Creed games are. They're stupid. But they're very fun and I like playing them. I should play them. I've never played them. They're fine. I wasn't impressed. By which one? I played the pirate one and then the American Revolution one.
[01:28:35] Odyssey is really good. That's like the best one so far. The pirate one is the one from the meme. What's the meme where the pirates of the Caribbean music are playing and they're like oh god no no no no no no. Is that from a Assassin's Creed?
[01:28:46] I don't know what you're talking about but now I really want to know. You know when the Pirates of the Caribbean theme kicks in. I will say I like I thought I was. No it's Sea of Thieves I'm sorry. OK that's what I thought.
[01:28:58] In the pandemic I thought I was going to get so much deeper into gaming and I bought like a lot more games and shit because I was just like what else am I going to do with my time and I never really like fell all the way in.
[01:29:06] Which what have you played so far? I don't even know. This is the point I'm going to make is that I recently bought a used Game Boy Advance and a bunch of games and I've been playing that nonstop and I'm just like
[01:29:19] oh yeah games are too complicated for me now. Well I think this is my take on it. I also same thing like during the lockdown thought I would get more into gaming. David and Karen just watching a video on Mike now. Yeah they're watching some silly meme.
[01:29:39] Always watch this and see it. I've been like what is this game where you're driving a whole pirate ship. One of my friends is really into this but I really have such a hard time with online games. Is that it's like you're on some pirate ship
[01:29:51] I guess I guess this is the game is that some other ship is approaching and then you hear the gamers going like oh no we have too much shit oh god oh fuck oh fuck they try to get out of the way and I'm like so.
[01:30:01] Is this the game is just like you just like boardy it's just you're a pirate. Well that was a big board of why I didn't like that game I couldn't fucking steer that goddamn ship. Shootin' fucking cannons, fucking doing all this goddamn bullshit.
[01:30:13] Wait this is the bad part of Odyssey is you do sometimes have to do naval combat and I could just never talk about it. This is the problem with so many games where I'm like. Naval combat sucks ass I never wanna do it.
[01:30:21] I love NBA Jam right and I'm like I wanna play the modern NBA game and it's like okay so here's how you post up it's sort of like a shifting motion but not too hard on the second I'm like I don't want this to just realistic.
[01:30:32] How are you playing basketball? I have found it so relaxing to play fucking Game Boy Advance games where I'm like this is so simple. What have you been playing on the GBA? I've played in the red so again we're in a low rat
[01:30:42] you're in a kitchen you try and jump up the levels to get cheese. I didn't know that there was a round two again. It's good. All right. Okay and I was just saying when Griffin and I were talking that I think another thing of why
[01:30:53] I couldn't get into video games because I played Breath of the Wild which is probably the best game. You're saying that just kind of blew your mind so much that other games you're like no thank you. And then I try another RPG like Witcher 3
[01:31:04] and I'm like this game's for nerds. Guys, I'm worried. Shut the fuck up. What you're creating here? Where I play Assassin's Creed it's just like it's not as movable as Breath of the Wild. It's a little bit more like a stringent.
[01:31:17] Breath of the Wild is really a pinnacle. Right. It's just a masterpiece. It's just a masterpiece. Witcher 3 was incredible. You just need to park your ass in front of a potion. You don't need it. Well you have to occasionally make a potion.
[01:31:29] Potions, pick a shit off the ground. Yeah, pick up a flower and grind it up. It is true that crafting is almost universally the worst part of any game. It is never the most fun with it. Just let me collect money and buy the thing.
[01:31:40] I don't think that's a perfect carousel. Brad's always got some fun cooking. I have to get a berry or something? You're like cool. I like collecting shit unsurprisingly my favorite part of the game. That's why you like those Lego games because it's all unlocking characters.
[01:31:52] It's all like 100%ing things. Yes, I like 100%ing things. They're just slightly more advanced platformers. But I think I just want to build bird shit. There's an analogy here to I feel like modern action films especially if you're doing sci-fi. This is good. Genre mashup action shit.
[01:32:09] Getting so overly complicated. That's fair. Whereas Escape from New York it's like every character you understand immediately. You understand exactly what the objectives are. You understand the clock. The spatial relation of where he needs to be. You know what he has at his disposal.
[01:32:28] Like it's what are his moves? What's in his inventory? Yeah, like all that shit. It just makes it such a pleasant watch to just feel like there's no moment where you have to be like wait a sec. Why did that? When did he get that?
[01:32:43] What is he trying to do here in this scene? Yeah. Wait Ben I have a breath of the log question. What do you make of the fact that the weapons break? Do you like that or do you not like that? Yeah. I mean it's annoying. Yes.
[01:32:55] This is my maybe hot take. I do think Breath of the Wild is beautiful. I think it's a very good game. But I do, I am like a Zelda boy where I'm like I wanna get the sword and have that be like a crucial plot moment
[01:33:06] and that's the sword that I have now. Not like you just got like an angels dick sword. I've been like he used it for five minutes. It's like it broke. Like every sword. The master sword exists. Yeah I know but it's a pain in the ass
[01:33:18] to get the master sword. Yeah it is a pain in the ass. And yeah I know like there are definitely times where I'm like what the fuck? You're like fist fighting a fucking monster. Yeah you're like deep in like the terminator's asshole
[01:33:29] and then suddenly like your thing breaks so you're like shit. I know it's so annoying. And you have to go make a curry. Yeah. To heal or whatever. Yeah. Back in my day you smashed a bottle and a heart came out. Yeah that was nice.
[01:33:43] But starting at Griffin's point like I do agree. I feel that's a major problem with a lot of movies recently, not just action movies because the whole idea now is like we wanna make something that's a franchise. We wanna make something that's really expandable
[01:33:55] and part of that is trying to build in so much lore so that you can keep building on it. And I guess also in the sort of video game vein like I played Cyberpunk recently and that is kind of the classic example
[01:34:06] of trying to do too much where they're like oh we can make this world so fucking cool. We can do all this shit and then all of it only goes about halfway and you're like I don't. Right and on the other side of Cyberpunk
[01:34:15] and I should play it longer because I spent so much time on my character's penis and then I played it for like 20 minutes and I was like I'm not gripped by this. Like I don't actually care about the story so much. The world could be interesting
[01:34:27] but I just, it felt generic otherwise. I should go back to it though. There's just a beauty to sort of the pockets of mystery and escape from New York, how much goes unexplained but also just like I think about like I feel like a third if not more
[01:34:43] of like modern $100 million plus budget action films adventure film, sci-fi films, whatever. You'd be hard pressed if you paused the movie in the last act and turned to the person watching it to answer what is going on? You know where it's like they like
[01:35:02] keep you floating on some level of pleasant but then if you actually, not Donald Pleasants unfortunately. I wish. But if you had to actually answer like what are they doing at this moment and why are they doing it and what are they trying to achieve?
[01:35:15] It becomes so abstract. You know? And not only that, it's like that objective isn't introduced until five minutes before that becomes the sequence versus something like this where it's just like, hey Snake, I'm Lee Van Cleef and the most compelling guy who's ever been on camera.
[01:35:33] Let me tell you everything that's gonna happen for the next 90 minutes to have fun. Yeah. You know and it's just like exactly what the fuck is going on in this one. Well, it's very much a simplicity thing right? Where it's like if you have this story
[01:35:44] and you only focus on that, then there's no getting lost and it's also compelling to start to finish because you're getting from point A to point B and that's it. Whereas everything else is like trying to set up these branches and as a result the main line
[01:35:56] is like who gives a shit about that? Which I also think, I think audiences like to do a certain amount of work. Right? You're most engaged in a movie when you're having to put some stuff together. You know? Yeah. And so the less it's explained
[01:36:10] or sort of dumped on your lap, the more invested the audience is gonna be in trying to do some of that work themselves. And so anytime a new character is introduced at this movie or a new wrinkle, you're sort of like analyzing it
[01:36:21] the way you do in a video game where you're like what do I need to figure out in this room? You know like why is this either going to be an imposition or an aid to his ultimate goal? Which it's just like right
[01:36:32] then you can just have these weird they don't feel like side tangents when you suddenly end up in a new space or interest to a new character or new role because all of it feels like what's either going to help or hurt
[01:36:45] but it's not going to take away from what we're ultimately working towards. But it's just also, it's brilliant if you sit down and map it all out you're like oh they only meet like six people and do like three things in this movie. Like not that much happens.
[01:36:58] The fight in the ring is the one thing where you're like oh this is sort of blown out. There's like a lot of people around and mostly it's just sort of some tense conversations. Like the big chase on the bridge, I mean it's part of the magic,
[01:37:10] like the carpenter score too where it's like less is more with everything right. So it's like a lot of silence and very quiet music. Okay just one thing I wanna make sure as we're like getting through towards the end. I just love that Isaac Hayes and his crew
[01:37:24] like you know just like I love baddies, right? Yeah. They're so fun. They are fun. Okay and I love that they are just recklessly shooting at the president into a target practice. Put him in a wig. Yeah. I just think that is so fucking crazy
[01:37:39] and badass like man. You just like how rude everyone is in this episode. That's what you like. You like how rude Snake is. You like how rude the bad guys are. Totally, absolutely. As we were talking about Lee Van Cleef, I just went on Google Image Search
[01:37:51] just to look at some pictures of him and you know that they will provide like related links up in that biz. One of them is just Lee Van Cleef Funeral which I'm very concerned about and curious to click but not sure if I should. What do you mean?
[01:38:05] You don't wanna hear about his funeral? You don't wanna see it on the cast? It's the image search. It's not a Google related search. Well, it may just give you his very cool of gravestone that we talked about right. That's true. It does seem like-
[01:38:19] I think this is just a picture from a movie because from the thumbnail I was like, did they just show him open gasket? Oh I see, it looks like an open casket but no, I think it's just from a movie. But like there are those very sweet pictures
[01:38:27] of him and Carusel like- They're very cute. Having fun strangling each other on set. Yeah, the one where they're both smiling as they're both like choking each other is cute. Look at this fucking Leavan Cleef on Johnny Carson wearing like the biggest medallion ever.
[01:38:41] Yeah, I just saw that, it's so good. Well he had just come from a rating the fucking tomb of the lost Ark or whatever. It's just something about like Leavan Cleef in the 70s or 80s you know? Or it's just like this guy fundamentally
[01:38:54] doesn't feel modern, you know? Which is why he worked so well in like the Leone movies and everything. And then when you put him in any other milieu it like immediately gives you this like interesting charge. You know, like this polarity, yeah.
[01:39:12] So they go to one of the World Trade Center buildings to escape, the glider does not work out. I do love those little fuckers here. We're just like, ugh! They just push like, they just don't, they're like two girls having a tantrum.
[01:39:27] They have no idea what they're doing. It's so useful and they're just like, ugh! Yes, so instead they, you know, Snake thinks fast. Obviously the plot has presented an alternate route. The Mind Bridge, the quote unquote 69th Street Bridge
[01:39:43] which is I guess supposed to be the 59th Street Bridge. There's Mines but it's a small scale. Like there's a few explosions and they're pretty little. You know what I mean? I like all of this. The whole less is more thing. The final showdown is great.
[01:40:00] You know, like, Isaac Hayes wailing on people with a machine gun. The president getting to finally cut loose. That's Pleasant's having fun. When he's like finally gets it. You're right number one, the Duke! Like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Griffin, you're looking something up.
[01:40:15] No, I'm looking for additional trivia facts here. I mean just a tiny thing but not to go backwards here but the eye patch was a Russell thing. Good, good. I also think it's so telling where a lot of people would have been like, I don't want to fucking
[01:40:33] cover up my face. And he was like, I need to look different. Like I need to make a different guy. I don't think this movie works without the eye patch. I don't either. It's kind of like 10% of the movie right there. I kind of agree.
[01:40:43] Yeah, I mean if she's just like some guy you'd probably be pretty cool. Right. The eye patch is crucial. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I've considered getting an eye patch. I know you have been. Yes. Absolutely. Style, color. I mean just classic black leather, scone crossbones.
[01:41:03] I was gonna scone crossbones. Griff, do you like the ending? Yeah, rules. I mean this is like another thing. I like the deaths too. I think they're all kind of impactful. Oh, I thought you were talking about the very ending.
[01:41:14] But I mean, yeah, of course the final final. I mean this movie's like perfect. It's just one of those things where it's like. The thing with the tape is so good. Yes, that's what I was talking about. And the sort of irony of Snake being like
[01:41:25] I got you the president. Right. I did the thing you asked me to do and I also figured out what you really fucking wanted you to. Which by the way, maybe put your nuclear info on not a consent. Maybe slightly more advanced technology and incredibly easily destroyable technology.
[01:41:43] Let's put on mini disk or something. A laser disk or something. Got a harder shell. Giant laser disk. Laser disk. Caring with two hands. I also love that like they're more dealing with the president. He's like, come on. My neck is about to. Yeah, yeah. Like you motherfucker.
[01:42:01] Yeah. I yeah him dropping from the rope before it lets him down. Little little things like that. Yeah. Yeah, I love the look of the little little doctor guy. No, no, I well yes, but I was going to say the little ship. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:42:17] The doctor guys on the level from the beginning. I like the little doctor guy. Another griffy role. Yeah. Yeah. Because he doesn't want to kill Snake. No, he wants to be honest. Yeah. He's a good dude. Perfect movie, I think. Well, pretty perfect.
[01:42:30] Yeah, I think I have an objection to this. I don't know. It's a little no. No, I don't. I don't. I mean just what I'm so fascinated by it. I keep on repeating myself here, but it's just like how much it is cited by
[01:42:44] so many people as an influence and how often people get it wrong by over complicating it. You know, I mean, that's I feel like that's such a common pattern, though, even with like John Wick where it's like that became popular than everyone tried to do it,
[01:42:55] but they completely missed like every copy of it is bad. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the first time I remember reading serious talk of a remake to this was post 300 whenever I was trying to figure out what Gerard Butler's deal was. And that got set up very quickly.
[01:43:14] And I remember Kurt Russell was very critical of it in saying that only an American should play Snake Pliskin, which seemed kind of sort of a weird objection by him. Jingoistic. But then it makes more sense if you just consider his kind of like possessiveness of the character,
[01:43:30] not want to see someone else play it. And then I know the rock is now supposed to do big trouble in Little China. But at one point he was going to do escape as well. Right? I hope neither of those things happen, though.
[01:43:42] Yeah. I mean, that just feels like we've talked enough about the rock, but like, you know, it's like it's not surprising anymore to see the rock as like a sort of off-center badass. He's done that so many times.
[01:43:57] That's what I'm saying. The rock would be, look, I don't think you should do either of these. I don't think he essentially should be remade in a literal fashion. But he'd be better in a Jack Burton type role than he wouldn't have Snake Pliskin type role.
[01:44:09] He's going more for Jack Burton. Yeah. Yes. Right. Right. That's kind of what he's. Jungle Cruise. Jungle Cruise is more. Did you see Jungle Cruise? I did. We could talk about it. Did you like it? I thought it was fine. Sure. That's a nice fun movie.
[01:44:25] Okay. I thought it was fine. Here was an immediate thought I had. How much better? This isn't a very immediate thought. No, not quite. No, I'm trying to figure out a frame. This how much better would that movie be if it was Oscar Isaac?
[01:44:41] I mean, a lot of movies would be better with Oscar Isaac. I know, but it was immediate thought I had because that movie does not actually require a lot out of that character as an action star. Right?
[01:44:50] In a certain way, the blunt character is more physical than he is. Yeah. No, I know. And the main thing you want is like fucking salty like oil and water chemistry. And that movie's like, well, he's the rock. He has to do some action and his action feels
[01:45:03] a little provulcturized sometimes. Right. But the twist is like insane. You can't do that. The twist is insane. Which I won't spoil for those who haven't seen it, although it's been out for whatever at this point in time.
[01:45:13] The twist would have made more sense if it was Oscar Isaac, for example, in a number of ways. Right? I also think he's better at playing that sort of anger and having a subtle sweetness to him underneath it. Po-damer in style. Right, right.
[01:45:25] Like that works if he's just in Po-damer in mode. That movie also works a thousand times better if it's Idris Elba. Idris. I mean, you're naming actors I like. Yeah. Right. I just feel like there's... That role is actually kind of deceptively complicated
[01:45:41] in terms of how many things they're putting on that character and also straining him to become iconic. And I feel like he delivers every line in that movie like he's presenting a Kid's Choice Award. Well... Like there's a little bit of his just kind of a vuncular
[01:45:54] I'm the rock, even when I'm being an asshole I don't really mean it. And all the grown-up jokes, I'm like you're not selling them hard enough. You should be more embarrassing, more of an asshole, more horny, more sweet. Like everything's kind of just in the middle with him.
[01:46:09] And I wanted someone who was a little pricklier. Yeah, that's fair. That's totally fair. Did they go on a jungle cruise though? They did. Kisa, what's your fucking objection? It's a movie score. It's a movie score. You know, I like the beak, the honey beak and the door.
[01:46:25] Yeah, the bee guy. The bee... That's a good idea. The three elements of course. I mean look, it's clearly like rejected Crash McCreary designs right from Dead Man's Chest. Yes. But I like that they're like three conquistadors. What are their things? Snakes, Poo Poo Mud and Honey Combs.
[01:46:43] And there's the wood one. The like tree one. Yes. Yeah, there's four of them. Yeah, the tree branches. Not that this is important. Jungle Cruise Corner. Yes. Plum and Torn. But I would say both times when the rock has talked about doing these fucking movies,
[01:46:57] he goes like, well, we're like really trying to use those films as a starting point and really ask larger questions about the world. And it's like no one cares. Everyone is indebted to carpenter and doesn't understand how much of an asset it was
[01:47:11] that A, he was sort of no bullshit in how he approached things and B Studios never let him go that deep up his own ass. Not that I think he ever could even go that deep, you know? Yeah. But that these things are just like,
[01:47:24] I don't know, what's like a compelling story? Like well told. And it's the difference between like people are now trying to make John Carpenter movies but John Carpenter was trying to make Hawks movies. And they're losing the Hawks lineage and they're just going like,
[01:47:37] well, what's the carpenter thing? Yeah. Yeah, anyway. Let's play the Hawks office game. Let's play the Hawks office game. This movie came out. This movie was a hit. It was a hit. It cost $7 million and it made 25, I don't know, pretty good.
[01:47:50] The fog was kind of not well received. Did okay. Yeah, it was successful. It was profitable. I mean, he's doing both these at a low budget. Neither of them are hitting like the blockbuster levels of Halloween. He never hits that again. Nothing is the stunning right. But yeah.
[01:48:08] These were like successful movies. Yes. This film came out middle of summer 15th of June, 1981. It opened number three. Okay. Number one is my guess, one of the biggest movies of the year is sequel. Sequel. It's a sequel. 1981. Not as many sequels back then. It's a two?
[01:48:27] It's a two. It's the third most successful film of the year. Wow. Okay. It's a number two. Can you tell me the genre? I'll just give it away. As broad as you can. Is it a serious franchise? Is it a comedy franchise? It's a serious franchise,
[01:48:49] but it's for families and kids and everybody to enjoy. It was this film was made sort of back to back with the first one. Is it Superman 2? It's Superman 2. Because I was like, I can't say comic book and I can't say. There's nothing I could say. Superman 2. Yeah.
[01:49:08] The Four Zod. Do you like it? Yeah, I did all the Superman movies recently. I really enjoy them even for all their wonkiness. I mean, yeah. Yeah, it's good. Dickie Lester. Dickie Lester recently died, right? Yeah, pretty recently. Or is he still alive?
[01:49:27] No, I think he's still alive. This really, when Richard Donner died, Jordan Hoffman texted me and was like, do you know Richard Lester's still alive? And I was like, no, but okay. And he just has a movie in like 30 years, right? 90 years old.
[01:49:41] I know, but he retired fairly young, I'll consider it. Yeah. Have you ever seen, because I've never seen... The Donner cut? The Donner cut. Because I've been told it's so weird because it's like cutting in like sort of unfinished stuff and screen tests. Yeah. It's like, right.
[01:49:59] It's a reconstruction project to just give you an idea of what it would have been, but there's no way to actually make that and Donner didn't even supervise it. But it's interesting. Yeah. I mean, I like both. I like the Lester movie. It's weird.
[01:50:10] I kind of just wish they had let Donner finish shit. Related to the Donner party? Any relation? No. Superman II number one, number two is the most successful film of 1981. Okay. Most successful film of 1981 would have been it's not Kramer versus Kramer. That's 80, right? Nope.
[01:50:35] Not a Best Picture winner. Although it was, I believe a Best Picture nominee. Oh, it's Rage to the Lost Ark? It's Rage to the Lost Ark. Yeah, of course. Yeah. That's like a good week. Yeah, it's a good movie Rage to the Lost Ark. Yeah. Well directed.
[01:50:50] I would say. Number three escape from New York. I'm just like, you know, go to your multiplayer. Yeah. Three good movies playing. That's awesome. It's also just wild that like Rage to the Lost Ark got nominated for Best Picture and Best Director or whatever
[01:51:07] because they were just like, I don't know, we can't deny this thing really. I guess, right? We gotta admit. Yes, but then it doesn't win. I think this is the chariot's of fire year. I can't remember. It's still, they're not gutsy enough
[01:51:21] to give Spielberg the win in the eighties at the whole thing for the pulpy stuff. Then some Spielberg's like, do you want the serious stuff? And they're like, no, you're a phony. It takes so long for him to like. It's just fine that like this is
[01:51:32] his pulpiest movie up until this point. Like it's almost like him being like, old Jaws and close encounters were like too heady and ambitious. I want to make something that's like just fucking popcorn. And they were like, God damn it, here's the best picture nomination.
[01:51:44] It's so weird in retrospect that he was like, he does that, he's so successful. The Oscars are like, we'll give you the nom but not the win. You're successful. We think you're kind of, you know, too cartoony. Then he's like, okay, what if I made a movie
[01:51:57] about Japan and World War II? Like no, he's like, what if I made a movie about the experience of black women in the 20th century? And they're like, no. And he's like, oh, I should make a movie about the Holocaust. I'm Jewish. I'm Jewish. I'm Jewish.
[01:52:11] I'm like, it's just so weird that he comes to that later. Yeah. I know he talks about how he was like afraid of making a movie about the Holocaust. Like of course, it's weird that he first, he was like what if I make a movie about black women?
[01:52:25] It's very odd. Anyway. Anyway. Number four is a James Bond movie. Fuck. Which is enough of a clue that there's still I said it could be so many things. So is it late more? It's mid more. We're in the middle of more.
[01:52:40] I believe this is the third more. Okay. I want to get that right. So it's like Demi more? Oh, I take it back. This is the fifth more. Wow. How does? Seven. So he's gotten a little long in the two. Wait, is Demi related? No. Oh.
[01:52:57] It is pretty mediocre one, I would say. It's pretty mediocre. Is it Man with the Golden Gun? No. No one stinks even though Christopher Lee is great. Yeah. But everything else about it stinks. He's got a golden gun. He does have a golden gun. It's pretty cool.
[01:53:12] That's the second more. The first more is Live and Let Die, which is the sort of one that's very black exploitation influence. And he's a lot of fun, but also ridiculous. Second is Man with the Golden Gun, which sort of stinks. Third is By Who Love Me,
[01:53:24] which is sort of the perfect Roger Moore movie. Fourth is Moon Raker, which rules, but is so silly. Fifth is this. It's kind of an anonymous one. It's Post-Moon Raker. It is. I'm trying to just fucking run through the titles in my head. Yes.
[01:53:40] Topol is in this one? Wow. I believe the villain is played by Julian Glover, yes. He's a PD a lot lately. Well here, I'll tell you the other ones. Then after this is Octopussy, which is a film that's called Octopussy. I've never seen any of the Moore films.
[01:53:56] You know that? Moore's like a total blunder. I mean they're up and down. Do you like Roger Moore? I think it's all right. Okay. Seventh is a view to a kill, which is the one with Walken and it's the one
[01:54:04] where Moore is like visibly in his late 50s and it's sort of like, what the fuck are we doing here? You know, but they can't quite let it go. Yeah. Walken very good enough. Really good enough. People are like, having fun. This is one of those things
[01:54:15] where people are yelling at their fucking. I guess so. It's got a very generic Bond title to it as well. Like it's not the one where they were like, let's get Pussy in the title there. What's it called? It's called For Your Eyes On You. Oh yeah.
[01:54:32] It's a movie. No, it's fine. I don't know. Right, you said it was mediocre. For Your Eyes On You. It's the one where I don't even remember it. All right. Who's the villain in that? Julian Glover. Oh, you said, sorry, yes. He's like a guy in it.
[01:54:44] He's like, I need to make some money. Yeah, you know, he's not crazy. He's not like Moonraker where the villain is like, I'm gonna replace Earth with a master race. And you're like, you are? That seems complicated anyway. Number five, Griffin. It's comedy starring one of your favorite
[01:54:59] comedy actors. It's one of his early hits. Is it a Murray? Is it a, is it, it's not meatballs. No. Is it Stripes? It sure is Stripes. Yeah. A movie that is only one hour long. First act good. Number six is an animated film that Kurt Russell's in.
[01:55:21] Fox and the Hound? Same weekend. Wow. That's incredible for how much this movie is about Russell trying to shed the damage. He's also like, I'm a cute dog. Is he the dog? No, no. Yes. What's his name? Mickey Rooney is the dog. Oh wow. He's Todd the Fox.
[01:55:39] Also got the Great Muppet Caper. I know. Famous Blake Edwards directed flop SOB. Oh yeah. You've got Cannonball Run. Oh amazing. SOB is the one where Julia- Julie Andrews is nude. Show us her boobs and people like got like furious and torched the screen.
[01:55:55] Yeah, like they were like you just can't do it. I think she had this thought of like I need to- Yeah. Those were escape from you. And then they got really mad at- So her bear doing the pulling a snake, yeah. They got mad at Blake Edwards.
[01:56:08] I think everyone was just like, this is just not allowed. How could this happen? Wow. Cannonball Run, a movie called The Four Seasons, which I don't know with Alan Alden. Yeah, yes, yes. Yeah, one of those movies where the poster is just Alan Alden, Carol Burnett.
[01:56:22] Having a drink. Sometimes that's all you need. I guess so. Let's get lunch. Here's To Old Friends. That's the fucking tagline. You're all the sounds very current, the frog. Yeah. Yeah, I can't do all of it. I wish I could. It's a good one.
[01:56:38] Yeah, this escape from New York, baby. Wow. Wow. Wow. How you feeling about it, Karen? It's good movie. It's a good movie. What does it end up at again? It's like 25. You know, everyone's happy. That was one of those-
[01:56:50] But it's more of a cult hit kind of thing. Yeah. The whole thing was like, oh these don't break out but they're profitable. Yeah. He's a return on investment guy. Except the, well the thing is, I think he's had enough of those
[01:57:01] that the next movie can be more expensive. And then as amazing as the thing is, it's a flop and it's hate. Which is so crazy to consider. But people are like, fuck this. Cause it rules and that's next week. I will say, I probably will rewatch this
[01:57:19] and bring it up a lot in the next episode. But I know it's probably on YouTube or whatever. I know it's on the criterion video drone. There's like an amazing like hour long TV panel show where it is Carpenter Landis. And who's the third one I'm forgetting?
[01:57:41] And Cronenberg, obviously. Ooh. It's on the video drone DVD. But it was like, oh Universal's letting these three guys make sort of a new era of Universal Monster movie. Right. You know it was sort of like, these are the young upstarts and we're giving them a bigger budget
[01:57:57] after like impressing on smaller scales to make their big creature features. And it was the thing, American Werewolf in London and video drone. Good movie. Yeah. And it's also just the contrast of the three are interesting. But absolutely not what the two of you must have been
[01:58:11] looking for. Right. Because it's like, well Carpenter's doing like a remake of like a real B movie, right? Landis is doing sort of his weird modern version of like one of the classic monster archetypes. And then Cronenberg's doing a movie about like fucking your chest vagina
[01:58:27] with your penis gun. Yep. And they're just like, new monster movies coming to you. Oh God. Dr. Brian Oblivion. Yeah. One day we'll do Cronenberg. We must. Well he's got, you know what? He's making a movie. Yes. Right now. Yeah. Did they just start filming?
[01:58:43] He's remaking, what is it? Crimes of the future or whatever it is basically, right? Like that's what it is? Yes. But he goes in it. You guys aren't pointing out that my head just exploded when you mentioned that we were gonna do. Oh yeah. Cronenberg bends, head explodes.
[01:58:56] You think we all hang peen again? I think he would if someone asked him to. Do you think he'll have a peen, a cobra on it though? Just to bring it back around the surface. I think you're gonna ask him, do you think he'll have a peen?
[01:59:06] You've got one this time? No, you think? I think it would be, he would, but it would be, the art would be different. It wouldn't be all black filled in. It would be like the outline of it, you know? And like the art filled in.
[01:59:16] It wouldn't be just a solid black snake. Sure, fair enough. That's fine. That's fine. I can dig that. How many times does he hung peen now? A couple of times that I can think of. Indian runner, which is. David just pulled a piece of paper out from.
[01:59:30] What is he? Do you have a peen list? Parkman. I definitely have a peen list. Yeah. For a pair of babies. He's from Ramasota, it doesn't, Captain Fantastic. Oh, he does, that's right. Right. Remember when he got an Oscar nomination for that? Bad movie. Bad movie.
[01:59:44] What was the category? I guess he's good in it? I think he's always pretty good. But that movie's bad. He's always pretty good especially. He just told like what the- The Pallion. The thing about Bigo Mortensen is, he was in Green Book. He was. It's mind blowing.
[02:00:00] I've never seen it. It's mind blowing. I think I black that out of my memory. The fur that you get from me, like right, Bigo Mortensen, that wonderful sort of genre actor who's mostly an art house guy, so beautiful, so poetic, really resting screen presence.
[02:00:14] You're like, wait, didn't he also play a talking sandwich in the best picture like in Tony Green Book? Tony. Famously full of the pizza in half. I hate it that way. He's just like, I think I know what this character is. Hey, I'm a recent Pallion guy.
[02:00:29] That's what he did. The Oscars were like nomination for you. Good job. No, it was like slam dunk cakewalk nomination. Also people were like, this is the funniest performance in years. People were treating it like- Can you imagine his body of work
[02:00:43] and then you get nominated for Green Book? What does he think about that? It's all so weird. I think he thinks it's great. Oh my God. Like I say, the whole campaign trail, it always felt like Marshall was kind of like a little weary of Green Book
[02:00:56] and a little embarrassed by it. And Vigo was like, this movie is profound. I mean that explains Captain Fantastic. Yes. That's a movie I feel like he thinks is beautiful. Yes, yes. And I'm like, ooh. It is such an odd casting in every single way.
[02:01:12] But he goes hanging. Is Green Book Vigo's fourth highest-grossing film behind the Lord of the Rings movie? It has to be. Like this is the other thing that's fascinating is he's a guy who like so largely avoided becoming a Hollywood leading man
[02:01:28] and then he's the fucking star of Green Book. The breakout comedy sensation. The question is, Green Book did so well overseas that did it maybe sneak past like fellowship? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Green Book was like fucking huge. I was being ridiculous.
[02:01:44] Oh God, oh God, oh God. The difference is 891 to 202 or whatever, 30320. Yeah, Green Book is his second highest grosser. But if you go domestic, sorry, he's his fourth highest grosser, but if you go domestic it's behind Crimson Tide. Interesting. Oh, okay.
[02:02:02] Was Green Book actually kind of quote unquote underperformed in America in terms of like the hype it got? It actually didn't crack a hundred. But then it kicked ass worldwide. It bombs straight when it came out and everyone was like, it's done.
[02:02:14] And then it like sleep walked its way to 80 whatever. And then people were like, huh, good result on Green Book. And then it opens in France and they're like, ah! But China loved it. Everywhere. It was huge in China, yeah. Everywhere, yeah, every other country
[02:02:28] just lost their fucking... He's got a weird box office. His sixth most popular American movie is A Perfect Murder. Oh, sure. It's Hidalgo worldwide, but worldwide also daylight is higher than Hidalgo because daylight crushed worldwide into terrible in America. Someone was recently on our Reddit like pulling up
[02:02:45] how surprised they were that Vigo got above the title He was a thing. Yeah. And this is the thing I had to sort of like, I don't think I wrote this, but I was, I drafted this in my head and then decided to close my computer instead. Smart.
[02:02:57] Very smart. Always smart. It's a method of self care I've been practicing a lot lately. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. There is that thing that happens sometimes where Hollywood's like, we're putting this guy above the title not because he's been a lead yet,
[02:03:11] not because he's proven, but we're so confident this guy's a movie star. Because he's so hot. Where they were just like, he's so hot, he's so good. Like it's gotta happen, right? We'll just put him there and everyone will say, I guess that belongs, he should be this.
[02:03:24] And then he sort of just like... He was like, no, I wanna do my poetry and photography. Yeah, like actively avoid it until Lord of the Rings, a movie he got hired onto like five days before filming started. And then everyone was like, great, you're Vigo Mortensen now.
[02:03:37] And he's like, yeah, no thank you, pass. Like does hold doggo, it is like absolutely not. Yeah. Anyway, it's got good penis. Yeah, he has great penis. I don't remember it. It's fine, I don't mean to be rude. It's good, it's good. It's good, David, don't.
[02:03:52] Well in the Eastern Promise is seen obviously he's rumbling with some fellas in the bathhouse. Right, so you know, it's a lot of flapping. Yeah, that's good. Anyway, this of course has been our episode on Escape from New York, beginning and ending with extended penis conversations.
[02:04:07] We really took it full circle. We really did. I don't know, I was gonna try a pun there, but I don't know. What was? I don't know, full circle. I couldn't figure it out. Karen, is there anything? Ben's making her face. You have or want to plug?
[02:04:22] I don't think so, you can follow me on Twitter at KarenWaihan, I'm trying to think about what I'm allowed to talk about. You should watch Karen's boys 20, 20 video that'll be coming out. Oh wow, you're putting so much pressure on me. Okay. Well sorry, 2022. Okay thank you.
[02:04:43] Yeah, I don't know, there's stuff that I'm working on, but I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it. So I'll just say go follow me on Twitter and I will probably talk about it there. Yeah, keep your eyes peeled.
[02:04:52] And I mean, I thought I just had now. I don't know if this is too bleak, but you could make the next KB video in a memoriam. Cause we're realizing how many KBs we've lost in the last three years
[02:05:03] and that might be a way to change the format. I feel like I have to do, well this has been a question too, where it's like I did it two years in a row and he used the song Boys both times. Do I keep using the same song?
[02:05:14] I don't think I'm allowed to use that as an in memoriam. The tone is not right. You do this song, how can I live without you? Here's my question. Is that? I want to know. Can you do like a sad piano cover? A cover? Yeah. Interesting. Right?
[02:05:31] Is this disrespectful? No it's the opposite, you're paying the utmost respect. Okay, right, cause it's like you were so hot when you were alive. Right. And now we miss you so much. Right. Something to think about. I'll submit it to the Oscars and they'll be like,
[02:05:45] yeah we'll replay this instead of our in memoriam reel which makes everyone angry every year. Yeah, didn't they do something weird this year? I think it was just so fast cause so many people died. Jesus, yes. It was, right, it was- They played Flight of the Bumblebees.
[02:05:59] No, they played that fucking TV Wonder song that's so fast. They played a TV Wonder song that was like very propulsive and it was like every other, it was genuinely fast. It was like a peppy song, it was not right. It was the
[02:06:16] da da da da da da da da da da da da What's that song called? I can't remember but I know what you're talking about, obviously. I don't know. I do remember that the song was too fast and it seemed,
[02:06:28] it was then it was timed with the people just so it was kinda like, you know like names every second. Yeah. It was like it's the end of the world, the REM song. It did feel it. I don't think it was that. But yes.
[02:06:39] I just thought that was- So we didn't start the fire. Let me find it. It was Stevie Wonder's as. Right. Okay. Right. It was just too fast. It was not. And then they were like, well a lot of people died. So like we ended up,
[02:06:57] but then they all ended up of course, they always do like missing a couple people and everyone was mad and- Which made it more egregious. Also like especially at this year's ceremony I'm like you're in Memorial and you could have given it 15 minutes.
[02:07:06] I would have been fine with that. What have made for good television. Anyway. We're done. Yeah. Wrap us up. You gotta go. Thank you guys for having me back. The boss baby's blowing up your phone. Yes! She's fucking blowing up my phone. Are you kidding me? Yes.
[02:07:22] Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review and subscribe. Thank you to Marie Barty for our social media. Marie! Big shout out to Marie. Again that Barty bump on the old episode. Oh yeah. The top of the charts. The public loves a Barty party.
[02:07:41] Thank you to Alex Barron and AJ McKinnon for editing JJ Birch, Nick Laureano for our research. Leon Cumbering in the Great American novel for a theme song, Joe Bonaparte Rounds for our art work. Go to blankys.red.com for some real nerdy shit
[02:07:56] and you can go to patreon.com slash blank check where now at this point we're in the mummy. We're wearing those tombs. We're getting wrapped up in the mummy. What? It looks like we are, no well no no no. We're gonna have somebody's watching me on the 11th.
[02:08:15] Okay. Another Adrian Barbo film. Yes. A little before this one and then the mummy will start. Okay. On the 21st. Okay and chronology is a little off but Elvis much mentioned today will also be happening. We'll do Elvis as well.
[02:08:27] Yeah we're peppering in those TV movies as bonuses. Yes and I think we're gonna do body bags as well when we get to that. Maybe. Scorpion King might have to take precedence. But we'll see. Maybe we can toss sprinkle body bags in somewhere else.
[02:08:41] I feel like body bags is later but anyway. No it is but it's just how many 11ths we have left in the year, you know what I mean? How many 11ths we have left in our lifetime? Wow. Life's just a series of 11ths isn't it?
[02:08:50] It sure is that's right. It sure is. Tune next week for The Thing. That thing. And as always I just remembered my plan for the end of this episode was to solemnly read off a list of KBs we lost
[02:09:04] but now I feel like we'd be stepping on the pitch. I just gave you to do it. No no no you can do it. I... No no no no no just pick it like a... I'm not gonna do it. Say something about peens.
[02:09:14] Yeah just say snake, blisk and snake dick.