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REWIND 006 - The Italian Job (2003)
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“Charlie, there are two kinds of thieves in this world: those who steal to enrich their lives and this week steal to define their lives. Don't be the latter. Makes you miss out on what's really important in this life.”
This week, we celebrate the life of legendary Hollywood actor Donald Sutherland as we look back to one of our earliest episodes from way back in February 2021 (seriously, listen to our constant COVID digressions) on this F. Gary Gray remake! Also, fun drinking game idea: take a shot every time we mention an episode we could potentially cover that we've already covered by this point!
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- Watch our big screen debut in Circle City Supernatural from our buddy J.P. Leck! You can either buy it on BluRay through his website, buy/rent it through Amazon Prime, or watch it free with ads on Tubi!
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Transcript
Introduction and Absence of Co-hosts
00:00:10
Speaker
you
00:00:22
Speaker
insert relevant movie quote here and welcome to the disenfranchised podcast that podcast all about those franchises of one those films that fancy themselves full-fledged franchises before falling flat on their face after the first film I am your host Tucker my co-host Stephen and Brett are taking part in a heist in Italy at the moment so they will not be joining me today it will just be me talking about some random movie for probably two to three hours.
Revisiting 'The Italian Job' Discussion
00:00:54
Speaker
JK, we're doing a revisited episode and this episode is from all the way back in February of 2021. Episode 24, where Brett and Steven talk about 2003's Italian job.
00:01:09
Speaker
ah Please note that some of the socials are different than they are in this episode So if you want the correct socials to check them out in the show notes Which I believe Steven is typing up for me right now. Is that Steven year? You are? he You aren't. Okay, he's not, but he will. i think I think he's going to. You're going to. Yes, he's going to. ah Anyway, so enjoy this throwback episode from 2021. Join us next week for a brand new episode. Until then, courage.
Film Context and Cast Overview
00:01:48
Speaker
Hello, welcome to another excellent episode of Disenfranchised, a podcast all about those franchises of one, those movies intended to kick off franchises of their own, but for whatever reason, they stopped after the first one. I am one of your hosts, Steven Foxworthy, and ah joining me is my co-host, who has just pulled up in a stylish new model, Mini Cooper. It's Brett Wright. How you doing, Brett? I'm fine, Steven. Good. I'm glad to hear it. Well, Brett, you know what fine stands for, don't you? No, Steven, what does fine stand for? Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. Mm, accurate. Yeah. I'm definitely fine.
00:02:32
Speaker
Who isn't fine these days? Goodness. it's ah Man, what a time what a time to be alive. ah it you know it's As of the time of this recording, ah January, though I can't imagine things changing drastically in the next month when this episode released, but you know we're two months into a new year and things are still as bad as they were 11 months ago. In fact, worse in a lot of ways. So cheers, cheers to that. Hey man, I feel like they're on the uptick. i hope I hope you're right, man. At least there's a vaccine out there now, but people I think are still trying to rush the rush the return to normalcy, and I think that's only gonna get us into more trouble, but.
00:03:11
Speaker
I would agree. But what do I know? I'm just a guy on a podcast. And speaking of podcasts, um we are usually a podcast to talk about movies. So what movie are we talking about this week, brett right?
Differences Between Original and Remake
00:03:24
Speaker
ah So we talked about the original a couple weeks ago. Now we're going to talk about the remake of the Italian job, the 2003 Italian job. directed by F. Gary Gray starring Marky Mark himself, Mr. Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Jason Statham, Seth Green, Yassine Bay, Edward Norton, ah Frankie G, and of course the great Donald Sutherland. ah What a cast on this thing.
00:03:56
Speaker
It's kind of insane. ah This is a great cast. It's stacked top to bottom. um my it It's a really solid. I mean, we could we could get into ah the career trajectories of most of these people over the course of this episode. So I mean, at least this episode is promising to be longer than our her original Italian job episode for sure. This is going to be our main couple for that. We're going to get into some stuff, maybe one or two things we might have missed in the the original. for sure But this is nothing like the original. It is what I would refer to as have referred to before as in-name only. A remake in-name only, absolutely. it's It's a regular Reno over here.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah, there's a couple of characters that share a name, and there's also some Mini Coopers driving around, and that's about it. that is That is absolutely it. In fact, the titular Italian Job is over within the first 20 minutes of this film. ah You could have and probably should have called this the Los Angeles Job, except you don't get the name recognition doing it that way, so. Oh, and there's also the Italian Job is about stealing a bunch of gold. Oh, yes, of course. and So one other thing, I guess. Yeah, the I mean, the circumstances surrounding the theft of that gold are completely different. But, you know, hey, um it's it's got enough trappings there that you can make a make a direct line from one to the other. ah But if you go digging too much below the surface, you're going to be very confused, I think.
Cultural Reception in the UK
00:05:29
Speaker
Yeah, I was hoping for at least somewhere a you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors offline somewhere. Same. And I've seen this movie before many times. Yeah, but no. Or like he blows something up and Mark Wahlberg turns him and goes, Hey, man, you're only supposed to blow the doors off. yeah You know, something some some reference to the most iconic line in the original film, but no. especially when you even have a character whose whole thing is demolition. I almost, that's why I was expecting it. Like, okay, he's going to accidentally blow something up completely and he was only supposed to build the doors off.
00:06:02
Speaker
Yeah, no, thats it no, no, and that would have been that would have been, you know, a great nod for people who have seen the original and enjoyed the original. But honestly, because I think as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, this film or the original film, the 69 Italian Job is not as iconic to American audiences as say any number of other films, I think you can scrap a lot of that iconography and only you know the few Anglophiles in the audience are going to really be upset by it. Yeah, like I was telling you before the record, like it is as much as I've learned about how iconic the original is to British culture, I can't imagine they were really too happy about this whole situation and what this movie did to the original.
00:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, and and i I didn't do digging. I should have probably checked out some reviews at the time, particularly from British publications, but I did not. I can probably do that real quick while we while we talk about a few other things. But, I mean, this this movie is itself a very different beast altogether than its 1960s counterpart. Another thing I probably would have expected but didn't see is, I mean, the the role that Donald Sutherland plays of Bridger The role played by Noel Coward in the original is like custom made for Michael Caine to be playing in this film. I would have expected Michael Caine to show up at least somewhere. I mean, he's in the remake of Get Carter starring Sylvester Stallone. So why wouldn't he have shown up in this as well? Maybe he was busy on another project. I don't know.
00:07:36
Speaker
ah Well, i my thoughts were if he got so pissed off about the original's poster being so like portraying this movie incorrectly, I can't imagine he would have been too happy about what this remake did to the original.
Edward Norton's Contractual Role
00:07:53
Speaker
He might not have wanted to have anything to do with it. That's, and that's entirely possible. I am looking up the original Philip French review from The Guardian Observer, which is a British publication. ah The Italian Job is a very loose remake of the slack xenophobic 1969 British comedy thriller. A few incidents and names from it, a few from which it retains, excuse me. The original became a cult movie largely because of a single Michael Caine line.
00:08:19
Speaker
You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off. ah The three supercharged Mini Coopers carrying stolen bullion in Turin. Noel Coward's final, very camp on screen appearance. And the song now popular among boozy football teams or football fans. Gary Gray's, F. Gary Gray's version is tauter, better made, but insufficiently idiosyncratic to a attract a cult following. So it doesn't look like, I mean, honestly, it doesn't seem like this person is particularly a fan of the original, so. No, you'd have to find a critic that was a fan of the original. Yeah. A British fan of the original and then see what they thought of it. But I mean, we don't got to go that deep on it. No, I should have done that yesterday while I was prepping for this episode. I did not. And that is on me. You're listening. Amen. We're not perfect.
00:09:03
Speaker
No, as are as our episode on the original Italian job attests, we are not perfect beings. I do want to get into the the xenophobia mentioned in that review because the original Italian, I mean, it's something that we didn't really talk about and probably could have in our original episode. And I kind of regretted not talking, like as soon as we were done recording and talking about the record, I was like, ah, we should have talked about that a little more. It's just the very, Britishness of the film, the very pro-Britain anti-Europe messaging of that film, ah which is very much us versus them. We mentioned that it was the reason why ah the producers didn't want feet
Themes in the Original 'Italian Job'
00:09:44
Speaker
all of the cars in the film to be fiats. ah They wanted an exclusively British car in there, but I
00:09:51
Speaker
I don't know, it's it's one of those kind of relics of a past era. And while I don't think the messaging is cram it down your throat, you know, we're better than them, it is pretty, pretty evident. And I think something that, at least in the 21st century, kind of hurts the the film a little bit. um But there is this this kind of under underpinning of Britons are smarter than all those lousy Italians. you know You got these hardworking Italian cops who are chasing them through the streets, and just the these really rather dull British criminals are kind of outsmarting them at every turn. but To say nothing of Michael Caine's Charlie Croker, who is i not with them at that point,
00:10:32
Speaker
um They're still managing to kind of outwit and outsmart them at every turn. And it really just, you know our plans are better than theirs. kind of a dealie. Yeah. um It's something I didn't have any sort of context for, which I think is why I didn't really care for the original as much as I should have. so like it It didn't resonate to me it resonate with me. as you know I'm an American, so I don't really get that xenophobia. i don't get the well even Even as an American, I don't get the, we're better than them sort of thing. I was going to say, because if there's one thing America is not known for at all, xenophobia. Yeah, no, 100%, but you know I'm not that kind of American. so
00:11:09
Speaker
So I don't really get that either. But sure you know, it's a thing. It's been around for a while. I don't get it. But that doesn't mean it's not real. Yeah, yeah I mean, it's it's a very real thing. And I think anytime you get nationalism, or not not nationalism, nationalism, somewhat healthy, jingoism, I should say, Anytime you you you as a society have to kind of grapple with that, um as America has been doing relatively recently, there's there's a ah degree of toxicity that kind of creeps in there. and There are elements of that kind of the fingerprints of that, I would say, kind of all over the original Italian job, which is unfortunate because I think it has a lot of other strong elements going for it.
Charlize Theron's Action Role Inspiration
00:11:49
Speaker
a film I was generally positive on. Honestly, this remake, a film I'm generally positive on, does it have its flaws? Sure. But generally, I think this is a pretty good movie. And I think the original is a pretty good movie. Yeah, same. I mean, I came down favorably at the end of the day on the original, I think. we Yeah, we both did. Um, and this one, this one, man, I put it into the, uh, what we talked about on the mastering commander episode. is It's a dad movie, man. It's a movie that is on in the background on a Sunday. If you're flipping through the channels, you're like, Oh, Italian Java. Watch this.
00:12:22
Speaker
ah no matter where it is you're you're just i'm gonna stop and watch this because i'm gonna have a good time it's it's super watchable it's absolutely a dad movie i actually borrowed the dvd from my dad uh of this movie so that i could watch it for this podcast because this is a movie my father owns in fact when i borrowed it from him he he commented you know i don't think i've even seen the original italian job uh despite the fact that he was alive in 1969 but again i think speaks more to the fact that The film was not really did didn't really do anything here, worthy of note anyway. So I think that speaks more to that than anything else. But yeah, this is this is kind of one of those movies that was like on TNT or TBS on a so on a Saturday night or a Sunday morning. And my dad is definitely the kind of person who would just kind of tune this in and kind of watch it mindlessly. I watched this so many times.
00:13:11
Speaker
when I was just out of college living with my parents, I watched this movie so many times. i But i honestly, I don't think I've seen it since then, but it was a movie I always kind of remember thinking was really fun. So I was i was excited to revisit it. And when you suggested doing the remake shortly after the original and doing kind of a comparison, i I was interested in that and interested in how well this movie was going to hold up, honestly. Yeah, it turns out it holds up pretty well. Compared to the original, no. But as a movie on its own, yeah, it holds up just fine. Right. And that's that's kind of where I ended up landing as well. what Had you ever seen this movie before, Brett? Or is this the first time you came to this one?
00:13:52
Speaker
I ah feel like it's one of those movies that I did see bits and pieces of, you know, flipping through the channels on a Sunday afternoon, ah because there's definitely bits and pieces that triggered my memory. You're like, oh, I remember this scene. but But was that because I saw it or because that was like seeing the trailer so many times? And the trailer pretty much gives away the movie. Like, if you see the trailer, you don't really need to see the movie because most of the good stuff's there. Yeah, so I remember a lot of scenes specifically from the trailer or maybe from the commercials, just like the scene where Charlize Theron is like, why do you get to punch him? Like, there's there's that one. Yeah, the whole, you lost the one thing he had going for you, the element of surprise, punch him in the face. Surprised? Like, I remember that being a big trailer moment for this movie.
00:14:41
Speaker
Yeah, so that there's a lot of stuff that I'm like, did I see this movie? Or did I just see the commercial and trailer? Because it was everywhere. This movie was everywhere, man. They promoted
Heist Summary and Betrayal
00:14:50
Speaker
the hell out of it. This was a big movie. um And it did a big bit of business for Paramount, actually. So there is ah there's a lot to talk about with regard to box office and legacy when it comes to this movie. which we'll get to toward the end of the episode. But before we start getting too deep into it, we do need to revisit one of our tried and true and and favorite recurring segments. They are the only recurring segment we really have on this podcast, which is the plot in 60 seconds, and which is where one of us, either either Brett or myself, as decided by our favorite, the coin of justice,
00:15:26
Speaker
will um recount the plot of this film in 60 seconds or less and so to do that we will flip the coin of justice Brett are you ready to call the coin of justice in the air absolutely let's go with tails big surprise and it is tails hey this the streak returns to me the streak is back baby it's back baby that means it falls for me to recount the plot of the Italian job 2003, directed by F. Gary Gray ah in 60 seconds or less. Brett, will you put for me please 60 seconds on the clock? Done and done, sir. Excellent. I am ready.
00:16:09
Speaker
when you are. All right, your time starts right now. All right, ah Charlie Kroker has put together a team to steal a safe full of gold in Italy, and he does so by blowing a safe through several ah floors and burying it on the bottom of Canal and Venice, where the safest thing cracked and the gold is stolen. One of the teams, Steve, played by Edward Norton, shoots ah John Bridger, played by Donald Sutherland, and escapes with the gold. ah Years later, they are back in the United States. They track down Steve, and Charlie recruits thirty seconds Bridger's daughter to help them in a complicated plot that involves driving Mini Coopers through a house. Steve finds out about it, and so he moves the gold, and so now their plan goes to driving Mini Coopers through a sewer underneath Los Angeles.
00:16:58
Speaker
ah They, he ends up, Steve has at some point shot a Russian or a Ukrainian. So the Ukrainians are after him. 10 seconds. Ukrainians, they take Steve and everyone gets away with the gold and they buy what they want. Damn, that's nice. Hey, I made it. This movie is plot light, man. It is. It is. It's it's really, it's it's more of a revenge movie than a heist movie. In fact, it's a revenge heist movie. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, just maybe like two of my favorite genres. There you go. So, you know, win-win. But yeah, the let's let's chat a little bit about the cast on this thing because it is, as we mentioned before, pretty stacked. You've got Marky Mark himself, Mark Wahlberg. I say Marky Mark because I just watched the filmography of Amy Heckerling this week and Clueless.
00:17:49
Speaker
is one of her big films and they refer to him as Marky Mark constantly in that movie. And I just thought that was the funniest thing since now. we It's like if I were watching a movie that came out in the early 2000s and they're just calling Dwayne Johnson the rock over and over. Like it's just not what we call him anymore. And so it amused me. I mean, at this point in his career, he has pretty much shunned the Marky Mark. He's gone. He's already done Boogie Nights, which I think is his big, serious acting breakout. And he started to take on the role that he has more or less taken on ever since of the
00:18:26
Speaker
kind of action star. um He's gone through various permutations of that. um But he's only I think at this point in his career as of 2003, only a few years. Yeah, so he's already done the perfect storm. he's already done planet of the apes a movie we will absolutely talk about on this podcast one day ah he's he's he's one year away from iheart huckabee's so he's still got a few like oscar bait kind of performances up his sleeve like four brothers
00:18:59
Speaker
the departed ah we own the night and then he starts dipping his toes more and more extensively into the action into the action genre and as a result that kind of becomes his go-to place whereas he's now in the daddy's home films he's in the transformer movies he's doing a lot of stuff with peter burg like That kind of becomes his wheelhouse as a result. so i mean he's He's probably a fairly conventional choice for leading man at this point in his career because he's already got a few of those under his belt, but I don't know. I think he's doing fine here. He's not really doing much to write home about. Do you have any particularly strong thoughts on Mr. Wahlberg? No, I just really love his hamburgers.
00:19:44
Speaker
You know, I've not tried them yet. I really need to get on that. i've I've seen them sold in grocery stores and I've just not brought myself to pick them up. And the last time I was in Massachusetts, I did not stop at a Walburgers to enjoy them there, so. Yeah, man, they're pretty good. Gotta hand it to the guy. I don't really, like his acting is hit or miss for me, so. I would say same. I'm just gonna say, good work on your hamburgers, Mark and Mark. He's not, I would say, an actor with a great deal of range. So I think it takes a particular kind of director to unlock him and what he does well. I think he is fine in this movie. Like I don't really think he's doing anything particularly special. This is not say Boogie Nights where he's
00:20:28
Speaker
um I mean, he knocks it out of the park in Boogie Nights, but i I attribute a lot of that to Paul Thomas Anderson, who's a very good director, and sees things in actors that is able to unlock, I think, certain things and in actors that other directors can't get to, like Adam Sandler's inherent anger and sweetness in Punch-Drunk Love, for example. I think he unlocks what's interesting about Mark Wahlberg, which is this kind of chip on his shoulder earnestness that I think plays really well in Boogie Nights. And you see elements of that here, ah but I think by 2020 and like Spencer Confidential, I think most of that's kind of been driven out of him. And I i don't see a lot of that in his performances anymore, which is kind of a bummer.
00:21:13
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Because I know, I mean, out outside of Boogie Nights, I haven't really seen any of those other more, as you called Oscar Beatty stuff. So I really know this Mark Wobber, the action star, the kind of Not entirely like wooden board, but just like just kind of he's there. He's doing Mark Wahlberg things, which is to say not much. Right. Yeah, but it's not bad. He's OK. This character is not a complicated character either. it This this role is not asking a lot of him. So I mean, he is. Most of the characters are broadly sketched in this movie, to to say the least. There's there's not a lot really here for any of them, these actors to latch on to.
00:21:57
Speaker
in terms of these performances. um But they're all doing what they do fairly well, which I think is, you know, I think I don't mean to say it's badly written. I don't think it is. And I don't mean to say that, I don't know, it's just this is not the kind of movie that you go to for complex character arcs. I you love to see them when they happen, but Is the Italian Job remake really where you're going for that? No, no, no, it is not. yeah I mean, it's sad. It's a popcorn movie, man. You just want to sit down and then turn your brain off and just watch some fun hijinks. You want to see minicoopers drive fast through places where cars don't normally drive. Yeah. Like through houses and in sewers and stuff. And on sidewalks, not hitting a single person somehow. Yeah, magically. Like all those people are really good at jumping out of the way.
00:22:47
Speaker
So, you know, that's where you're going. Who are some of the standouts in this cast to you? um Honestly, like i so i mean first, I gotta say Seth Green probably. that's nice Hilarious in this. I enjoy Seth Green and a lot of stuff from Buffy to other things, robot chicken. Oh, he's great in robot chicken, absolutely. So, you know, that's good. And I personally have always really liked Mos Def. I think he's... Excuse me, Yassine Bay. Sorry, my bad. Excuse me.
00:23:22
Speaker
I hope I'm not mispronouncing that either. If I am, I'm going to sound like such an ass. Oh, no, he's got this. He's always had to me. He's always had this sort of like he's charming, kind of like this earnestness to his characters that he plays, I guess I want to say. So is it? I don't know. I enjoy Edward Norton's a dick. And you really want to see him get his comeuppance. yeah he uh so edward norton in this movie apparently there's a story behind how edward norton came to be in this movie because this is not the kind of movie you would expect to see edward norton in he is not the kind of guy who you know jumps at the chance to be in these kind of small action films but apparently he had some kind of contractual obligation uh to paramount and so he did this movie
00:24:09
Speaker
literally just as a way of getting around or getting out of that obligation, refused to do any promotion for the movie. However, all that being said, he's still really good in this movie. Yeah, because I mean, he's Edward Norton, so he's going to be good just, you know. He's one of those actors that even when he's probably phoning it in, he's still good. I i would say at this point in his career, that's definitely true. I would say and at other points in his career,
Yasin Bey's Film Contributions
00:24:39
Speaker
I would say that's probably less true. I think more lately his his work has not been
00:24:45
Speaker
uh particular anything i would particularly write home about but then again like he's in one of my favorite movies of the past decade birdman or the unexpected virtue of ignorance um so i mean he's he's done some stuff that i've really liked but then there's some other stuff where you're just like the born legacy for example where you're just like this is a absolutely just a paycheck movie and You know, he just doesn't seem quite as as plugged in as you would expect him to be. I am generally favorable on Edward Norton. I think his reputation anymore is probably not as as strong as as it used to be. Let's just say it that way. Cause I think, you know, early in his career, your primal fear, your fight club, he was like the it guy. And I think the more and more he got plugged in, the more quote unquote difficult
00:25:33
Speaker
he became ah the second Edward Norton movie that we've ever discussed on this podcast. Can you remember the first? No. The movie he's barely in. Oh, Alita Battle Angel. That's right. He's in it because they are setting him up for the sequel and we'll never see that sequel now. ah But yes, Edward Norton, the brief no-line cameo at the end of the film ah where he just stands there. ah that's That's Edward Norton and Alita Battle Angel. But yeah. I, to to talk about Yasin Bey, he is an actor I've always been intrigued by. i I don't know much about his music and that's kind of his his primary. is He's a he's a a musical artist and I don't know much about his music, ah but I have enjoyed the performances I've seen him in. He was on one of the bad seasons of Dexter and was one of the better parts of it, as I recall. Dexter, a show that went sharply downhill like immediately after the fourth season.
00:26:33
Speaker
um weirdly and he's in like i think season five but he's very good in that season as i recall i'm trying to think of some other things that i've seen him in but i um i don't have a bad thing to say about the man um his postman on the poster is uh unfortunate but sure i i really enjoyed him and hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy oh of course hitchhiker's got a a movie we'll absolutely talk about on this podcast one day and a movie he is absolutely fantastic in. He's absolutely hilarious in that movie as I recall. Yeah, that was that I think that was my first introduction to him as an actor.
00:27:09
Speaker
um Yeah, he's great. He is. Absolutely. I'm just looking at his credits here. He's not done a lot. He's in Cadillac Records as Chuck Berry. I don't want to see that. Be Kind Rewind, Barry Meets Standing, 16 Blocks, a movie I've heard interesting things about. Not really positive things, but interesting. ah The Woodsman, a Kevin Bacon movie that I've heard is pretty good. ah But this is one of his earliest film roles. He's in the Halle Berry Oscar vehicle, Monsters Ball. And it looks like the Eddie Murphy, Robert De Niro two-hander, Showtime, which is a movie I saw one time and thought was pretty bad.
00:27:50
Speaker
All right. um Yeah, it's it's not a it's not a great movie. And I can't say I would recommend it. But he plays a character called Lazy Boy in that movie. I don't remember him in that movie. So I cannot comment on whether or not he was good or bad in it. ah He's also in the 2000 Spike Lee joint Bamboozled, which I own but have not yet seen. and Okay. So, I mean, he's he's he's got a good pedigree. I say this is one of his earliest films and then I keep digging. And his earliest film was actually 1991, The Hard Way. So, maybe not. Maybe I'm just an idiot. but is you know It's possible, man. It's possible I'm an idiot. Boy, howdy, is it ever.
00:28:28
Speaker
You and me both, brother. It's fine. The mistakes, mistakes have been made. That's is all I'll say. But no, i've I've always been very positive on him. This is also one of the earliest Jason Statham films I'd ever seen. Yeah. But man, he doesn't feel like it. He's just, you know, I make the joke all the time is Jason Statham doing Jason Statham things. just Jason Statham has one mode. I mean, he he was an athlete. He was a swimmer, a diver, I think, who got pulled into acting by Guy Ritchie, I think, who put him in lock stock and two smoking barrels and the follow-up snatch, which are the two good Guy Ritchie movies, I would say. i've I've seen a few others and quickly lost. ah we'll We'll get a chance to talk about Guy Ritchie at some point. but
00:29:10
Speaker
Jason Statham, my Guy Ritchie guy. So i had I had seen those two films before I caught this one, but this was his big, I think his big American play, if I'm not mistaken. I'm gonna say that, and then I'm gonna get into his filmography and realize he'd done like 10 American films before that, if the Yassine Bay model is is any indication. But Snatch is, if not a masterpiece close to it, Snatch is great. Snatch is my favorite of the Guy Ritchie films. Lockstock is a very close second, which if you've not seen Lockstock, you need to see lock stock. That's not really good. did Yeah. The follow up, which is Revolver, very bad, like disgustingly bad. um So he's in a movie we will talk about at some point in this podcast, Ghosts of Mars, John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars.
00:29:56
Speaker
in 2001, the Jet Li film, The One, also in 2001. And then, of course, his big American breakthrough had occurred just the year before. He played a character called Frank Martin in a little film called The Transporter. So this is his big American follow up, I would say. and The Transporter films. Yeah. it's It's such a bummer there's more of those because it seems like a movie we could talk about on this podcast and yet. Yeah, but you know, those are also kind of, they're dad movies, but they're not really good dad movies. They're those movies that are like, that they're just on, you know, like Manny's, I guess I'll watch it. Have never seen one in its entirety. Wow. I mean, you're not missing anything.
00:30:39
Speaker
I'm not going to be like, you should see them, Steven. You're not missing anything. there just I mean, I feel like I'm good. They're just goofy, shut your brain off movies. Sure. Which I mean, there's there's certainly a place for those. And there is a time when I do enjoy those. But yeah. I will say with regard to Charlize Theron, apparently, and she said this this film was the reason that she became an action star or strived to do more action work, I guess.
Post-Italian Job Careers
00:31:06
Speaker
Apparently on the set of this film, she they got the schedule and she had six weeks, I think more driving instruction than any of her male co-stars. And so she like, and understandably blew them all out of the water.
00:31:24
Speaker
when it came to all of the vehicle stuff that they had to do. In fact, Mark Wahlberg could not keep up with her, as what she said. And so that that kind of gross display of sexism eventually inspired her to take more ah action roles in more action films. ah so Starting with, in 2005, the Karen Kusama film, which we will absolutely cover one of these days, Eon Flux. She's in Hancock, although doesn't do a lot of the action stuff in Hancock. um She's in the Ridley Scott Alien prologue, or prequel, I guess, um Prometheus, ah Snow White and the Huntsman, and it's weird sequel, The Huntsman at Coal and Winter's War. 2017, she does Atomic Blonde and Fate of the Furious, co-starring Jason Statham, and directed by this film's director, F. Gary Gray, who we also need to talk about. And then last year, she did a little film, ah Gina ah Prince-Bythewood's The Old Guard,
00:32:19
Speaker
And then, of course, the one film I've glaringly left off of this list, because I just want to just like turn the screw on this one a little more, is one of the greatest films, another of the greatest films of the past decade, ah Mad Max Fury Road, in which she plays Imperator Furiosa. Yeah, but I got to really give it up to Atomic Blind, because it's a great movie. Which I have still not seen. I need to check that one out. It's like Lady John Wick. um But I've heard that it's it's is one of the directors of John Wick, the director on that one, or the fight curiosity out for fight choreographer on that one. Goodness, I can't talk. You're asking the guy that knows none of this stuff at any point in time ever. so I don't know. Sometimes you you're able to pull it out. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I randomly know the info. But 95% of the time, I don't.
00:33:10
Speaker
so this is ah So this film came out in 2003. Also in 2003 is the film that Charlize Theron would win her Oscar for, ah the Patty Jenkins film, Monster. Which I haven't seen that either. it's ah It's okay, as I recall. She's very good in it. I will say that. um I saw it once shortly after it came out on DVD and have not watched it again. I need to rewatch it. It's it's on my rewatch list. I might just watch that in the two Wonder Woman films this year and just do a Patty Jenkins, just watch all of her filmography, because that is right now all of her feature-length films. Tragically, we have not let Patty Jenkins direct more movies. Sure. Yeah, that's a good idea. I can also say that ah with the Old Guard, is that what it's called, the Netflix? Yes. Yes. That's also really good. I also really enjoyed it too.
00:33:57
Speaker
Very good. I would say probably one of my top 10 movies of last year. Yeah, hopefully that gets a sequel. But if not, we'll totally talk about it. Yeah, I can't imagine it not getting a sequel. But again, yeah, we we absolutely well. Netflix seems like the kind of studio that would let that be a sequel. ah particularly given how few films came out this year. I don't know. I would hope Netflix would do right by Gina Prince-Bithwood and Charlize Theron and let them sequelize that, but who knows? Who knows anymore, man. 2020 and 2021 are going to be weird. Yeah, they they a lot of things a lot of things that were sure bets have kind of are no longer sure bets, thanks to the crazy year we had last year. So I don't know. Do what you will with that.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about F. Gary Gray, the the director of this film. He is, and he's another director. We'll cover more of his stuff going forward because he directed the failed Men in Black reboot, um Men in Black International. Question, Steven. Yes, Brett. I will answer your question as best as I can. Does the F stand for fun? I doubt it. I very much doubt it. No, the F stands for Felix. Oh, that's not as cool. I mean, you know, do what you can. I do think it is fitting that we are covering an African-American filmmaker during African-American History Month. Do you love to see it? You do. It's always nice when it happens good. So but he is he's a filmmaker who has done a lot of different things.
00:35:29
Speaker
He was a ah music video guy, like so many directors who have achieved any kind of prominence. Started out as a music video guy, directed music videos for Ice Cube. In fact, the It Was a Good Day video was directed by F. Gary Gray, Cypress Hill, ah Coolio, Queen Latifah, OutKast, Dr. Dre, like he's done, he did the TLC Waterfalls video, like he's done a lot of stuff. His first film is the but classic ah film Friday. um That was his first film. He also the next year followed that up with Set It Off, ah which starred Queen Latifah. So you've got Friday, which stars Ice Cube, Set It Off starring Queen Latifah. He likes to kind of plug in musical artists, it seems like when he can.
00:36:14
Speaker
In 1998, he does the Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey movie, The Negotiator, which I've not seen. I need to see that. 2003, A Man Apart and The Italian Job both come out in the same year. In 2005, he directs the sequel to get shorty the very popular various on felt film get shorty ah called be cool, which is about the record industry get shorty is about film industry to be cool is about the recording industry, as I recall, and then 2009 law abiding citizen.
00:36:48
Speaker
which I've heard is not a good movie, ah waits six years and then does the very popular Straight Outta Compton, which kind of revitalizes his directing career a little bit. And then he follows it up with 2017, Fate of the Furious, 2019, Men in Black International. And he is announced as the director of the Mask movie, that is the mobile armored strike command movie. movie based off of the toy line. He is announced as the director of that one, which I think he can make a fairly serviceable action film out of that. Could anyone make a good serviceable movie out of an action figure line? ah Here's the thing, man. We have got I mean, you would you could argue Michael Bay could make a a serviceable franchise out of a the out of an action figure line. i would
00:37:38
Speaker
I mean, my sister-in-law's a big fan of those movies. Sure, a lot of people are, but they're not that doesn't mean they're right. I mean, fair. Fair, touche. Not something I'm a fan of. At some point, I'm going to watch all of the Transformers movies. I don't know when that will be, but I know it's going to happen. one of these days? Like like I gotta, I gotta come to grips with the fact that sometimes I'm just not in zeitgeist. Like there's tons of people that love the Resident Evil movies and I think they're all bad. So who am I to judge? Well, and here's the thing, it's okay to like a movie and it's okay not to like a movie. Just don't be a dick about it.
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah, man. Don't be a fan. Just like stuff. Don't be a fan. Just like stuff. You know, don't. And if someone doesn't like a thing you like, don't take it personally link because it's probably not personal. yeah if If I said I didn't like something because Brett did like it, that's personal. If I say I don't like something because it's not my cup of tea or because I don't think it's particularly good. It's not personal. So, you know, yeah, don't be a fan. Just just like stuff. Yes. But so this kind of falls in ah in a kind of a weird midpoint of F. Gary Gray's career. um He's still got some more music videos or at least. ah No, it looks like i ah he's he's done with music videos by this point. The things I'm saying here are just like collections. But, you know, he's he's a fully established himself as a filmmaker at this point.
00:38:56
Speaker
and he's made you might argue most of his best films are probably behind him at that point but then he comes back with straight out of Compton and kind of blows everyone away which is a movie I still have not seen and I'm kicking myself that I've never seen straight out of Compton because I've heard it's incredible um and I need to watch it but I've not yet so that's and it's it's I think he would probably be the right director for that film given that he has worked with Ice Cube before and has probably worked with a lot of those artists before on music videos, et cetera. So it seems like he would be the right person to kind of work on that film. So i'm I'm interested to see that one based on all I've heard about it. It's probably pretty great. I've seen the two films he made after that. I've seen Fate of the Furious and I've seen Men in Black International.
00:39:38
Speaker
okay Fade of the Furious, not a particularly strong entry in that franchise, I thought, but it's fine. A franchise I don't think Brett has seen any of. I've seen the first one. You've seen the first one? Not indicative of what that franchise would become. So I've heard. And also not the last time we will talk about that franchise in this episode. Just previews coming soon. Steven talks more about the Fast and Furious franchise. you know it's It's a franchise with a lot of peaks and valleys, but it's a franchise I think a lot of people legitimately love. so And I absolutely see why. it's The high points are very high. Unfortunately, the low points are pretty low. And i'm I'm someone who is more favorable on certain of those movies that other people don't like and less favorable on ones that a lot of people do.
00:40:22
Speaker
to each their own, right? Right. Absolutely. And you know, that's that's kind of I'm not your typical. I'm not always your typical guy when it comes to like mapping out franchises, things a lot of people like I don't I won't necessarily particularly if I come to it late, which I've come to, I would say, argue probably most franchises is late. ah Last year, for example, I watched all the Friday the 13th movies. My rating on those is very different from most people's. Much too much. Sure, sure, sure. ah My favorite Friday of the 13th movie is Seven. Of all things. ah Yeah, ah it's the one where he fights Carrie or the Carrie knockoff. That's my favorite one.
00:41:01
Speaker
I mean, look, it's my wife's favorite, too. So it's it's good. It's one of the better ones for sure. Knowing that it's your wife's favorite, actually, I take that as a as some street cred because she's a big fan of that franchise. So yeah, but it's really good. I can also say it's probably it might be my favorite, too. I'll put that one. ah That's a feather in my cap. I also like number four. It's probably my second favorite. so Which I've heard is a lot of ah is one a lot of people really like. One that I've heard a lot of people love that I just didn't understand. Six? Didn't really like six. But then again, I think slick six is the most slashery of them all. And I'm on record as not being a big fan of slashers. So see our last episode. Yes. Yes.
00:41:42
Speaker
on on my bloody balancing. Where you express not liking slashers to a couple of big horror fans. Yeah. Hey, and you know what? You guys were both pretty cool about it. So look, man, because we get it because it's not personal. Right, exactly. You know, it's it's OK to like a movie and it's OK not to. So I mean, in terms of liking this movie, Brad, did you I mean, I think we both have kind of said we're both pretty favorable on it. What what elements were you most favorable on? Where did this movie grab you? I don't know. There's a goofy action movie. Does it really have to grab me anywhere? You would you would expect the goofy action movie to grab you somewhere, man. No, not really. ah If it's just a goofy action movie, you're just you're there, you're having a good time. You know, the actors are good. The action's fine, I guess.
00:42:27
Speaker
so i mean yeah but you know, action. so So you enjoyed the action, you enjoyed the the goofiness of it all, the inherent ridiculousness of the premise, etc. Sure. Look, sometimes you can just like a movie and not have a reason, Steven. I mean, I know you're trying to, I know you're trying to get like conversation out of me, but like, I don't really have a specific thing that I'm like, yeah, this specific thing is what grabbed me and just didn't let go. I don't know, man. It's just a good it's fine. I mean, i i I like heist movies. Heist movies are generally very fun because it's about assembling a very specific team to do a very specific job. And those are two things I love to see in movies because usually the very specific team means you get like a cast of goofy characters.
00:43:09
Speaker
which you certainly have here, and everyone's got their specific role. You've got the transpo guy, you've got the the tech guy, you've got the demolitions guy, you've got the mastermind, you've got the safe cracker, you've got the auto guy, because there's cars in this movie, because it's an Italian job, and of course there are. So I like i like it when you can get a lot of of goofy characters together to do a thing. And then, of course, having the thing means that there's a direction for this movie to go, like there's there stakes involved. and But then it's also a revenge movie. So you get that kind of added personal element to it. And again, these characters are not specifically sketched. There's not a lot of depth to any of these. It's all pretty on the surface, which is fine. Again, this is not really the movie that you're going into.
00:43:54
Speaker
expecting a lot of, expecting a lot of nuance. And boy does it deliver. There's not a lot of nuance in this movie, but you know, it's good. There's a little bit more than usual. At least each one of these characters gets their own like five minutes or lower. Sure. Yeah. The ah the introduction, kind of like the the intro scene of I don't know, the um what's the movie I'm thinking, a Suicide Squad, where everyone kind of gets their own like, like their rundown of them as a character and kind of their history with I would say it's far better done here. It includes a cameo by the creator of Napster, Sean Fanning, playing himself as he steals a ah computer disc out of Seth Green's computer. Laughed out loud when I realized that was actually Sean Fanning, something I don't think I had ever really put together until this watch. Absolutely hysterical. Thought that was great.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah, no, it is. This is really good. ah Which, you know, you got to wonder why, I mean, if he could do something like that, why not try to get Michael Caine in your movie, you know? Right. And I mean, given the nature of the cameo, it's it it's especially bizarre ah because the whole impetus for Seth Green's character is that he was the original creator of Napster and that Sean Fanning stole it from him while he was napping. No, granted, I don't think anyone really believes him when he says that. But then the flashback literally shows Sean Fanning stealing the disc from Seth Green. So I don't know, man, just that just feels like a really weird cameo for this guy to do. Hey, look, Napster was on on the way out and maybe he just needed some money.
00:45:24
Speaker
I mean, that seems pretty accurate. I mean, if there's one, there's a lot in this movie that kind of crystallizes it in its time and place, and Napster is absolutely one of those things. um There's also an ad at one point, or the ad that they they blow up to cover the hole that they blow up for the truck to fall into the sewers is a an ad for Pepsi Blue, which is such a thing that is isolated only to 2003. It's kind of ridiculous. Like, do you remember Pepsi Blue? Kind of, but not as a thing I ever drank.
00:46:02
Speaker
I remember drinking it, but only after they'd stopped making it, because it was still, for whatever reason, in the vending machines i'm like at the college that I attended, because we were a Pepsi-only campus, which killed me, because I'm not ah generally a Pepsi fan. um When I drank soda, I was a Coke guy, but Pepsi Blue being you know different from actual Pepsi, I was like a little more okay with drinking. I don't remember it being particularly good, but it was a thing that I did consume. But yeah, there's just there's stuff like that all in this movie. And you're just like, man, this is very much a product of its time, including the refurbished Mini Coopers, which I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty sure we're just done for this movie. boy And then I remember, I do remember seeing Mini Coopers on the road after that. Oh, for sure. For at least three or four years. I don't really see them anymore. Rarely sometimes.
00:46:58
Speaker
ah But yeah, I mean, that there's still a mini dealership up on the north side of town. wow So I mean, it's it's still there. It's the the BMW dealership just off 465 on the interstate. Not that I would ever drive them because I probably can't fit in one. Same. because i am six feet tall and i'm just i'm just very wide although interestingly you see charlie starone who is a very tall lady getting in and out of a mini cooper at various points in this movie both and ah an og mini cooper and a new model mini cooper so i mean it it it happens quite a few times and maybe they're maybe they're more spacious than they appear
00:47:35
Speaker
Maybe. I can't say as I've ever been in one, so I can't say as I can really comment. like this there the There's a big marketing push for Mini Coopers based on this movie, and they were very popular shortly after this movie came out. I would say largely probably based on this movie. The fact that they were also put out by BMW kind of meant that a certain class of people were the ones driving them, but yeah what are you going to do? Sure. and as as As future years have shown, people love tiny ass cars. They really, really do. And like tiny ass, just about everything, really. This was also the time when cell phones were getting smaller and smaller before we realized we could watch movies on our cell phones and they started getting bigger again. Yeah, that was a weird change of direction. Yeah, it was that because the joke was like the ongoing pop culture joke is phones are going to get so tiny. You've got like that ah Will Ferrell character in like the the clothing store who pulls out the really tiny cell phone and like holds it up to his face. I think that's a joke in Zoolander as well.
00:48:30
Speaker
And then people realize, oh, we can watch movies and stuff on our phones. And now the joke is, you know, it's the phone the size of an iPad or something, or, ah you know, a phone the size of a full a big screen TV. Like, that's the joke now. So literally, the joke that's just a pop culture joke that's just swung way back the other direction. So, yeah, man, um let's talk. Well, so I was going to say, with that being said, it seems like this movie was pretty hardcore into the zeitgeist. Why did it not get a sequel, Stephen? Well, and ah it's going to it's going to really flummox you when I tell you what it made at the box office, because this movie did ridiculously well at the box office. It was like the twenty third highest grossing movie of 2003. It earned one hundred and six million dollars domestic.
00:49:18
Speaker
ah plus another $70 million dollars in the international box office. So we land at a pretty good chunk of change. ah There was apparently a sequel in development ah for years. The script had been written, the movie had been budgeted, the cast was set to return, and then it just never happened. um So apparently the proposed sequel was supposed to was like the original proposed sequel ah meant to be called The Brazilian Job. It was scripted, it was actually based on a script written by David Tooey, who was probably best known as the director and screenwriter behind v the the Riddick films, the Vin Diesel Riddick films.
00:50:05
Speaker
uh the script was called the wrecking crew and it was retooled basically it retooled rewritten a lot of people took passes at it um to be an Italian job sequel they had a budget in place everyone was set to come back if Gary Gray was going to come back to direct it was listed as in development or in production on IMDb for years, probably about four or five years. And eventually, according to what I've seen, the studio just lost interest, which seems because this movie ah did really well for them. And people seem to be interested in a sequel. And I think the more time went by, I think the bigger some of these stars became, particularly Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron, but also Jason Statham, like all of these guys are getting bigger.
00:50:53
Speaker
they would be probably harder to get back for a sequel. ah Seth Green moved on to other projects like Robot Chicken, et cetera. So, you know, he's like a producer in his own right now. These guys are getting harder and harder to pin down. That's going to cost even more money. So eventually I think the steam just kind of got let out of it. um apparently the story was going to revolve around the crew getting back together for a diamond heist ah in Belgium. So why it's called the Brazilian job, I don't know. Maybe the same reason this is called the Italian job. Maybe something happens in Brazil that sets off the rest of the movie. Something, something Italy, something, something job, I don't know. But ah the rumor
00:51:37
Speaker
that I have heard, and it's been it's pretty popular around the internet. The rumor is that the this this sequel, that was the proposed Italian Job sequel, ah was was eventually retooled and rewritten and became the script for the best movie in the Fast and Furious franchise, Fast Five. I don't know if that's true. I do know that the the climax of Fast Five takes place in Rio de Janeiro. and involves Paul Walker and Vin Diesel driving a massive safe ah down the streets of Rio de Janeiro, like tethered between two of their two of their cars. So it's entirely seems possible. I mean, it may it seems very much like something that the the sequel to this movie could have absolutely done. So that's the rumor. I i don't think it's that difficult to believe that rumor, honestly, um but yeah, there you go. So this movie,
00:52:32
Speaker
did not quite uh it didn't get the sequel and at this point it never will in 2016 there was a rumor that there was going to be a an italian job tv series uh but we all know what has happened to that which is nothing. So there's never been an Italian job show. I'm sure, I mean, it's a property that Paramount has that they'll probably want to do something with at some point. Yeah, like it's funny, we didn't actually talk about like, why I guess we sort of did our history with Italian
Unrealized Sequel: 'The Brazilian Job'
00:53:04
Speaker
job, right? Like, we're like, I rode the ride at Paramount's Kings Island, same and in Ohio.
00:53:11
Speaker
um the Italian job stunt track or something like that. It was a roller coaster. Yeah. Or the cars were mini Coopers. And it kind of told the story of the car chase at the end through roller coaster form ish, you know, the helicopter comes in and there's an explosion. And yeah, it's loosely tells the car chase at the end of the movie. But yeah, um There's not a helicopter chasing your your car at any point, you know, really low through the streets of Los Angeles or anything like that. No, it just kind of shows up near the end of the coaster. Sure. And there's an explosion. but ah but then and then And then Paramount decided we don't ah we don't we can't really afford to sponsor these theme parks anymore.
00:53:57
Speaker
uh so uh it's just it's just like generic stunt course name now but it's the same ride yeah and that honestly there's a lot of those kind of rides at king's island uh because it was parent like a lot of there were roller coasters that got renamed to be named after paramount movies and then there were rides that were specifically from the inception ride movies like top gun or face off like these big blockbuster movies that were turned into roller coasters for some reason. Weird. But Lara Croft's Tomb Raider. Oh, not one I remember having seen. There was ah those a James Bond ride at one point.
00:54:37
Speaker
there that I remember. It was like one of those like movie rides like Back to the Future at Universal. Yeah, the motion, the motion. yeah it was It was Days of Thunder and then it was ah ah James Bond. That's right. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, so there's there's a lot, and I don't know, maybe that seems like a more realistic theme park excursion for us to take when, you know, in the event that the world ever returns to normal, ah doing ah a trip out, maybe we should cover a few more of those Paramount failed franchise starters, and then do a do a remote record out on Houghton, Ohio for Kings Island.
00:55:14
Speaker
Man, that'd be great. i haven't been I haven't been to Kings Island and it hasn't been a decade, has it? No, it's less than that. It's got to be less than that. I'm hoping it's less than that. i've I haven't been in a number of years. In fact, I will have to look at what is still there to kind of like figure out what movies we need to cover to justify this. but ah Yeah, it was it's it's been a it's been a hot minute for me for sure. In fact, I think think I was a youth pastor the last time I went and I think this movie had probably just come out. So I don't think I've been there probably since 2005 at the latest. But yeah, so it's it's definitely been over a decade for me.
00:55:52
Speaker
Yeah, last time I was there was we went to the the Halloween event when they have all the haunted houses there. um But yeah, it's been a while. But I mean, i I was a big old fan, man. I went so much as a kid and everything I could probably tell you most of the rides there. um say Well, and I don't know which of them are still active, though. That's the thing. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's fair. Because, you know, they they tear stuff down, put stuff up, theme parks, man, always changing, getting the people in. But that seems far more likely for us to do than, say, Malta and Popeye Village. So, you know, i' never send everybody. I mean, sure, sure, sure. But, you know, Ohio is a lot closer than Malta. So sure, sure. Just throwing that out there for what it's worth. But yeah, so this movie came out in May 30th, 2000 and
00:56:42
Speaker
three May 30th, 2003, and opened at number three that week. Wow, really? Yes, and when you hear the first two movies, you will understand why. Opened at number three. ah Number one is a is the first week of the new Disney Pixar film Finding Nemo. ah So of course it was. ah Number two is one of the highest grossing films of the year. It is in its eighth week. It stars a huge comedy star in a big return to comedy. It is Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty. Jeez. It's eighth week and it's still number two. Yeah, it had been number one the week before in its seventh week.
00:57:29
Speaker
My God, i cannot I do not remember the movie being that huge. It was massive, dude. ah number Number four, down from two the week before, in its 16th week, it's probably the highest-grossing, or like one of the very highest-grossing films of the year, and one of the most anticipated sequels of the early 2000s, The Matrix Reloaded. ah Yeah. And in number five, a another big comedy star doing big comedy star things. And another, I mean, you just don't see movies with this kind of multiplier anymore. ah In its 22nd week, it's earned $76.8 million. dollars It's Daddy Daycare, down from four the week before, an Eddie Murphy comedy that weirdly spawned a sequel. Man, just... top to bottom is blockbusters. It's yeah, it's I mean, it's it's the summer blockbuster season, man. It's ah Memorial Day weekend. So you got to figure, man, people are going to the movies. ah So yeah, it's it opens at three. But that by no means means that it's out. I mean, again, it it multiplies pretty well. It earns looks like sick, right around $6 million is opening weekend, but goes on to gross 100 million domestic.
2003 Box Office Reflection
00:58:47
Speaker
So I mean, that's it's got legs.
00:58:50
Speaker
But again, movies don't this is back when movies had legs, when you could keep a movie in theaters for weeks. so um Daddy Daycare has been in theaters for 22 weeks, and it's still in the top five. X2, X-Men United has been in theaters for almost 30 weeks, and it's sitting at number seven, down from number three the week before. So, I mean, the stuff in here with staying power is, it sticks around. So, which- Yeah, clearly. You just don't see movies doing that anymore because studios are quick to pull stuff out. And, you know, if it's not a huge Avengers level blockbuster, no one's really interested. You know, modest comedies, you could just kind of keep in theaters forever and people would come back and see them based on word of mouth. That just doesn't happen anymore. Like, this is only, what, 18 years ago, but it still feels like another time.
00:59:40
Speaker
Yeah, it does. In Hollywood terms, it is kind of another time. Yeah, you don't really see just like mid-level comedies just churning out the middle of summer anymore. No. Like Daddy Daycare and Bruce Almighty doing this kind of business is would be unheard of in 2021. That's so weird and also kind of disappointing. Correct. I mean, those are like Daddy Daycare in particular is the kind of movie you would expect to open on Netflix. Unfortunately. Which is where all those mid-level comedies pretty much go nowadays. Like Palm Springs, yeah, it's an indie movie and yeah, pandemic, but that one was always gonna roll out on Hulu because Hulu bought the rights. Now streaming services are more in the game than a lot of studios are. And now most studios are finally getting on board and starting their own streaming services, but that's just gonna divide the market even more and it's gonna end up being a complete cluster. So physical media people, if you like a movie, buy it. Yeah, and when movie theaters up and back up, go to them. Correct.
01:00:36
Speaker
Please. I mean, they're open now, but please stay home and wear a mask. look No, listen to me. I'm going to tell you right now, movie theaters are closed. Don't go to them. We're just going to nip that in the bud. Don't go to a movie theater. They're closed right now. Don't go to a movie theater. It's it's a bad idea to go to a movie theater right now. Unless you rent out a theater for the going rate of $100 right now. you could go Right now, Steven, you could go see the thing at your own private screening. Oh, that sounds awesome. At AMC for $100. that That sounds so delightful. I would hope they would get an actual print of the movie and not just pop in the Blu-ray, because if I wanted to see the Blu-ray, I'd just stay home. I don't really know, to be honest with you. I don't know the details. Because I have the Blu-ray. I have the Blu-ray Steelbook. It's in the other room right now. But sure, could you go to your own private screening of that Blu-ray in a movie theater? In a movie theater? No. I can go to my home theater out in the living room. With some popcorn?
01:01:30
Speaker
Sure, you know. I have popcorn. Movie theater style popcorn, Steven, with a giant tub of that and a giant tub of soda. I don't drink soda. That's been established on this episode. Giant tub of... I don't know. What do you drink at movie theaters? Do you drink anything? I mean, I might get a ah bottle of water, but... Oh, you poor bastard. I mean, it's it's really not a big deal. i I don't like diet soda, and I'm diabetic, so I can't drink regular soda, so I just don't drink soda. I'm so sorry. That's fine. If I go to like a restaurant, I'll get like ah an an unsweetened iced tea.
01:02:08
Speaker
but I don't trust the the iced tea and the the movie theater um dispensers to actually be unsweetened because even like the the nest tea and stuff all has is just disgustingly sweetened some and always tastes like like gross fake lemons so yeah yeah no i mean i'm wasting on that one uh but Man, I mean, that's part of the movie-going experience. Giants of popcorn, Giants of a soda. I mean, a few years ago, I would have absolutely agreed with you, but I, unfortunately, my my own personal health choices have prohibited my ability to do that, so... Well, sure. Well... What you gonna do? Well, you you don't like diet is the problem.
01:02:47
Speaker
we're We're into diet sodas. Yeah, which you know, it's fine. I mean, if you like that, go for it. I've never cared for diet soda. Best of both worlds, brother. You can have soda without any other sugar. I just, and it, but it's the, it's the taste. It's the flavor. I just can't get, can't get around it. All right, man. Not my thing, man. I've even tried like the Coke zero and the the diet, Dr. Pepper, which everyone tells me is exactly the same and it's not, it's just not. That one is though. I don't know what you're tasting, but it tastes exactly like regular Dr. Pepper to me. If you say so. Okay. I just, I don't know. It's not the same. I don't know. I don't know why we're talking about soda in the middle of our episode on the Italian job. We're talking about movie theaters and how we miss them. ah The Tomatometer score on this one is a 73%. So pretty favorable among critics. The Metacritic score is 68.
01:03:40
Speaker
And the ah good people on Letterboxd rated a 3.1 out of five stars. Brett, where do you land on the 2003 Italian job? 0.1 lower than that, so three stars. Three stars, honestly? Same. I also gave it three stars. I don't like it quite as much as the original Italian job, but it's still, it's fun. And it's just kind of inoffensive and innocuous enough that, ah you know, it's an enjoyable little movie. So I don't know. what what what more can you say it's it's it's inoffensive it's enjoyable fun for fun for kids of all ages i don't know go out and watch it nothing like the original but go watch it too to compare yeah absolutely like both of these movies deserve your attention so
01:04:24
Speaker
100%. So Steven, Steven, I have a bit of movie trivia for you. Oh, I'm excited. Can you name what property Donald Sutherland and Seth Green have in common? What property? Yes. Like, you know, intellectual property. Oh, oh, I see. Oh, interesting. Okay. Other than this one, obviously. Obviously, yes. What other intellectual property? No, you got it, Steven. That's the one. Hey. It was a trick question. i mean I feel like this is really obvious. and Oh, it's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. hey There you go. because Donald Sutherland is in the movie and Seth Green is in the TV show. Actually, he's in the movie too. as a He had like a cameo that was like or like a small role that I think was cut out of the theatrical version or at least severely limited in the theatrical version. But he's actually on the back cover of the of the VHS box art was the the bit of trivia that I read on that. so
01:05:20
Speaker
hu making him, I think, the only person to appear in both the movie and the show. Neat. Yeah, so yeah, that that took me longer than it should have, but yes. It's also been a long time since I've seen the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which honestly is probably a movie we will end up covering at some point on this podcast. Yeah, probably. has It is a failed for franchise, technically. Yeah, but only because the franchise was more successfully spun off and rebooted it in another medium, so. Yeah. You can imagine that had that movie been done well, ah there would have been other Buffy the Vampire Slayer movies. Potentially. Potentially, so. And that'll give us a chance to talk about, I don't know, some of the actors in that movie who may or may not have cut all that out. i was i was I was trying to go somewhere with Paul Rubens in it. It didn't work, so. Probably for the best. Yeah, probably definitely for the best.
01:06:17
Speaker
ah Yeah, but no, we'll absolutely talk about Buffy at some point. ah Brett, any other anything else to say about the Italian job? um Either iteration? No, i think we've I think we've pretty much done it all here. we've We've been thorough. We've talked about both. We've compared both. We've contrasted both. I hope you all have enjoyed it. We'll do this again because there's plenty other failed franchise originals and remakes. Sure. ah we We covered one of those last week, and we'll definitely cover the remake at some point, though probably not, as mentioned last week till next year. you know It seems like one to do right around Valentine's Day. It seems like a good time to cover My Bloody Valentine, but rest assured, for all of you who are worried, we will absolutely be covering both. so We know. We know. Trust. Trust. You don't got to tell us. We know. We already got it planned. It's on the on the calendar. you know Mike will be back, hopefully. Hopefully, we can get Mike back. I would love to get him back to talk about that one too. um but yeah so hey um Thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Thanks for listening to Disenfranchised. ah Thank you also for sharing this podcast with all of your friends, ah telling them all about it and how much it means to you personally.
01:07:27
Speaker
ah Thank you for following us on social media at disenfranchpod on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you for liking us on all of your podcatchers of choice, but particularly for those five-star ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts. If you do that and recommend a failed franchise starter, we will cover it on the podcast in relatively short order. Let that be an incentive for you to rate and review this podcast. um And also thank you for emailing us. No one's done it yet, but we're thanking you in advance. ah Emailing us at disenfranchpod at gmail dot.com.
Engagement Call to Action
01:08:02
Speaker
Again, the first person that emails us with a failed franchise starter. They want to hear us cover. We will cover on this podcast. so And again, before the end of 2021.
01:08:12
Speaker
we will cover it. I can be found on social media, thank you for following me there, at Chewie Walrus on ah Twitter, Letterboxd and Instagram. ah Brett, such as it is, where is your social media presence and where can we find you? I'm Letterboxd, at Gunslinger Fire. All right, there you go. So thank you. Thank you. We've got one more episode ah in February, and ah it's boy, howdy. It's a fun one. I'm excited for it. I don't know how Brett feels about it, but judging from the look on his face, maybe not. I don't know. But another one of those movies I had fondness for as a kid and um anxious to see if it holds up, but we'll find out. So until then, I'm Stephen Foxworthy for Brett Wright and myself. Don't be a fan. Just just like stuff.
01:08:59
Speaker
And you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off! Only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!