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Pizza Scissors: Cobra vs. Over the Top
102 Plays1 year ago
It’s Stallone week! Rock and Rob take a trip to the 80s to determine whether the one liner filled action classic Cobra (1986) or the ridiculously premised but uplifting arm wrestling movie Over the Top (1987) takes the underappreciated title. Listen in as they battle these two classics through seven rounds of questions and discuss the important things like underground arm wrestling at diners, last name changes mid movie and…Stallone’s pizza eating?!?!
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Transcript
Introduction & Movie Quotes
00:00:00
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? Brothers don't shake hands. Brothers gotta hug. Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus. I don't want your life. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. Okay, a simple wrong would have done just fine.
Meet the Hosts & Movie Showdown Premise
00:00:26
Speaker
What is going on, everybody? And welcome to the movie showdown with Rock and Rob. My name is Rob Mansfield. And with me, he drives truck, breaks arms, and arm wrestles. It's Alex Rockline. All at the same time, too. Well,
Trucker or Cop?
00:00:42
Speaker
let's jump right into it. We got the rock question of the week. Alex, would you rather be a trucker or a cop that has to deal with the absolute worst crimes primarily at night?
00:00:54
Speaker
Some of them probably involving truckers. Let's go. Let's go trucker. That other one sounds miserable. I'll say trucker. I mean, you get to stop at diners. Like that's kind of cool. Maybe you have like one of those trucks with a big cab. You can sleep not sitting up in the seat, but laying down, you know.
Life on the Road: Truckers vs. Cops
00:01:10
Speaker
I was talking with Krista's uncle a couple weeks ago and he used to do deliveries and he was telling me about the setup that some of these trucks have and it's like pretty nice. Right, there's like beds in there and stuff. There's like beds, closets, a lot of amenities. He said some of them have like microwaves and different things. For me it would come down to two things. I have always thought every time I'm driving behind a semi truck, there's always that tag on the back that says
00:01:34
Speaker
Looking for drivers, call, and I always think, I feel like there would be aspects of that job that would be kind of fun. I don't think I'd like to be away from my family as much as truckers are, but it would be kind of cool to drive around the country, see all the sites and stuff. On the other hand, I really dislike going to the bathroom at rest stops, and I feel like that's a big part of being a trucker.
00:01:55
Speaker
That reminds me of our trip through Scranton and we made a pit stop at the mall. The rundown abandoned.
The Scranton Trip Inspired by The Office
00:02:01
Speaker
Yeah. What was that mall called? Steam Town Mall. Scranton, like where they go in the office. That place is sketchy. We were driving from Boston to Pittsburgh and Alex, as am I, are big fans of the office and Alex really wanted to stop in Scranton. And I had been to Scranton before and told him, I'm happy to stop. We don't really have any place to be, but I'm letting you know you're going to be disappointed.
00:02:20
Speaker
And I was like, no, we still gotta go. It's gonna be great. I can't wait to see everything. And we pulled into that town and immediately his face dropped and was like, this is not like the office. There were so many strip clubs. Remember that? It was just strip clubs and abandoned. We went into that mall, which was half abandoned, walked around. They had like a random carousel that it was like straight out of a horror movie. Yeah. And then the food court had like one operating place. We did not stick around very long.
00:02:47
Speaker
I have a trucker question for you real quick. Follow up. Were you, uh, one of these kids growing up pumped the arm to get the trucker to Tom? Yeah, absolutely. Were you? Oh yeah. I tried to do it now, but as an adult, I'm like, man, that's, that would be really dangerous. If all of a sudden he's honking his horn to try to scare someone else, maybe causes an accident.
00:03:05
Speaker
As a kid, you're like, this is the coolest thing. I realize we're an audio medium and people can't see what you're doing.
Childhood Memories: Truckers Honking
00:03:10
Speaker
Alex is moving. Yeah, I'm doing the pump, the arm pump. Yeah, he's pumping the arm so you could try to get a truck driver to beep his horn. I feel like anytime we took a class trip on a bus or anything, that's all. Absolutely. Then think about being a truck driver and you just have 40 kids all doing that to you.
00:03:24
Speaker
And like you do it once and everyone cheers, but then they just keep going. Yeah. And it's just like, but at the same time, you're driving down the highway and you see a school bus and you're like, this is, this is why I became a truck driver because all the kids are doing the thing. This is it. I'm ready. And the bus drivers just in the front, like Chris Farley and Billy Madison, like I'll turn this bus around. No yelling on the bus.
Stallone Showdown: Over the Top vs. Cobra
00:03:48
Speaker
Okay. So we're talking about truck drivers and bad crime police officers because it is Sylvester Stallone week here on the movie showdown. I was inspired by Alex's comment in our year end review episode about one of Sylvester Stallone's greatest eighties movies. And Alex and I spoke and decided that it would be a good idea to battle out two of
00:04:13
Speaker
Sly's, well, I'm not gonna say best pieces of art, but two of his most notorious pieces of 80s film, and that is Over the Top and Cobra. Alex, what's your earliest memories of Stallone?
Stallone's Rise to Fame
00:04:25
Speaker
Just the action movie guy, you know, cool name, big muscles, the cool voice that everyone tried to do. He's just one of those guys, he's got one of those voices. Yeah. You know, when you hear it, people try to do the impression.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yep. You know, growing up, he was also in the movies I could not see. I was too young to see the Stallone movies. I didn't see all of the movies when I was younger, but I saw a good amount. My dad loved Rocky. And so from a young age, I grew up watching Rocky. I mean, you could probably tell I have the Rocky one poster right behind me.
00:04:53
Speaker
So I was a big Stallone guy and a huge Rocky fan from the start of my life. Watched all of them, loved all of them, still do. I'll even defend Rocky V. I don't even care what people say. But so Stallone was a big part of my life growing up. And it was something me and my dad were able to bond over, which was cool.
00:05:12
Speaker
Most people know the Stallone story by this point. He was a really struggling actor, wasn't getting cast in things because he had just that distinct look. He ended up being homeless for a little bit. But after not getting role after role after role, he finally decided to write a role for himself, which would end up being Rocky.
00:05:32
Speaker
But he had one condition, he wanted to star in the movie and the studios did not want to give him the part. He was offered $350,000 for the script and he bet on himself, turned it down so that he would have the opportunity to star in it.
00:05:49
Speaker
and then finally landed with a studio that let him star in it and the rest is history. He is a massive, massive success. He's one of only two actors to star in box office number one films across six decades, the other one being Harrison Ford. He's had so many hit franchises. There's been eight Rocky movies, if you count the Creed franchise,
Stallone's Documentary & Birth Complication
00:06:11
Speaker
And he's been in seven of them. There's been five Rambo movies, four Expendables movies. He just came out with a documentary on Netflix called Sly. Did you catch that? I've not seen that one yet. No, it was good. I watched it. You know, it doesn't get like too deep when these stars do these like biography movie things. They're not like really going to reveal all the craziness. But it was interesting. The one thing I did learn from it was his facial thing in the way he talks was due to a complication in his birth where the doctors accidentally severed a nerve.
00:06:40
Speaker
which caused paralysis on the lower left side of his face. Interesting. So I'm a big fan of Stallone, but excited to get into two very fun Stallone movies this week. Alex, why don't you tell us about the movie you will be representing?
Movie Summary: Cobra
00:06:54
Speaker
Cobra is, it's crazy. So you take the movie Zodiac, add a ton of cocaine, all the dialogue.
00:07:01
Speaker
It's turned into action movie one-liners. I love it. This movie was released May 23rd, 1986, directed by George Cosmatos, written by Sylvester Stallone and Paula Gosling. This movie had a budget of $25 million and brought in $160 million. That's crazy. Rotten Tomatoes score of 18, but a Google audience score of 86. That is quite a difference right there. 1886. It's pretty shocking. Wow.
Movie Summary: Over the Top
00:07:31
Speaker
I will be representing Over the Top. A summary is a truck driver must win an arm wrestling tournament to regain custody of his son. Like, seriously, that's the plot of the movie. That's that's it. Plain and simple. Released on February 13th, 1987. Do you think this would have been a good date movie for Valentine's Day? No, no, there's no love interest in it. His wife, ex-wife, whatever she is dies pretty early in the movie. So this movie came out when I was five days old. What a birthday present.
00:08:00
Speaker
It's all right when it came out. Directed by Menahem Golan, written by Gary Conway, David Engelbach, Sterling Siliphant, and Sylvester Stallone. I think that's something people don't realize about Stallone. He actually is a decent writer. Yeah. Budget of $25 million, box office of $16 million, which that's interesting to me because this movie came out a year after he crushed it with Cobra. So I wonder what it was about over the top that people were just like, I don't want to go and see that.
00:08:30
Speaker
Maybe it was a movie about arm wrestling and they were just like, that's where I draw the line. Maybe it was timing, you know, May versus
Drafting Cool Movie Character Names
00:08:37
Speaker
February. Is that that much of a difference? I don't know. Yeah, I didn't look. I wonder what else came out around that time. Yeah, that's a good question. Rotten tomato score of 32 percent and a Google audience score of 84 percent.
00:08:48
Speaker
These two films, Cobra and Over the Top, are really tied together. So besides being Stallone movies, both were a co-production of Canon Films Group and Warner Brothers. Canon typically produced low-budget action films, but they managed to talk Stallone into a two-picture deal, Cobra and Over the Top. But they lacked the finances to hire him, and so that's how they entered an agreement with Warner Brothers.
00:09:10
Speaker
So it's interesting, these movies both star Stallone produced by the same company. Stallone wrote on both of them and they were released within a year of each other. So it'll be fun to kind of battle these out to see which one reigns supreme. So quick draft time. My first thought was we should just do a Stallone movie draft, but then I realized it would probably all just be Rocky and Rambo.
00:09:32
Speaker
So instead, I thought since both of these movies have really cool protagonist names, you've got Lincoln Hawk in Over the Top and you have Marion the Cobra-Cobready in Cobra. So let's do a quick draft. Coolest fictional movie character names, not code names, not nicknames, has to be their full name. We'll do five each. Since I'm representing Over the Top, I will take
00:09:58
Speaker
Lincoln Hawk, you will have Marion Cobb ready. Do you want first pick or second pick? I'll take first pick. Okay, ready? Go! Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. It's just such a cool name. That is a cool name. I am going to go with Shane Falco. Yes.
00:10:16
Speaker
from Replacements played by our friend Keanu Reeves. And then I'm going to go with Mason Storm, played by Steven Seagal in Hard to Kill. All right, I'm going to throw one at you here. Jesus Shuttlesworth played by Ray Allen in He Got Game. What a name. I mean, that's really good. That's really good. I'm going to follow that up with Napoleon Dynamite from the movie Napoleon Dynamite. That's awesome.
00:10:43
Speaker
I am going to go with Axel Foley, played by Eddie Murphy in the Beverly Hills Cop movies. And I'm going to take Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford in Star Wars. I'm going to go Memphis Reigns. Oh, nice. Gone in 60 seconds. Our buddy Nick Cage. All right, last pick. I'm going to go with John McClain. And that's just more for the action movie Die Hard. There are so many good ones left. We're going to pass up Indiana Jones, John Wick.
00:11:11
Speaker
Yes, I'm going to pass up Johnny Utah. I am going to go with Chance Boudreaux, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme in Hard Target. Oh, that was fun. Napoleon Dynamite. That one got me. Yeah. There's a few other ones I left on the table, like Duke Kaboom from Toy Story 4. Another Keanu. Yeah. Duke Kaboom's really good. Yeah.
00:11:32
Speaker
All right, Alex, ready to get into these
Cobra's Cast & Notable Scenes
00:11:34
Speaker
rounds? Let's do it. I just feel like every one of these rounds is gonna be so close. This is gonna be tight. This is gonna be a really tight one. Round one, best cast or performances. What do you got for Cobra?
00:11:47
Speaker
While Sylvester Stallone, as we have noted, plays Marion, Cobra, Cobready. It's just such a cool name. What a great nickname. And I love that his nickname is like played off of his actual character name. Cause like the Cobra is a cool nickname anyway, but like the fact that it's like coming from his name, that makes a little bit better. I like that.
00:12:04
Speaker
You know where he got the name Marion? Where did he get that from? Most 80s action heroes were named John. There's just a ton of Johns when you go through the list. And the hero of this film is named Marion after John Wayne, whose birth name was Marion Robert Morrison. John Wayne was like the epitome of cinematic tough guy who often played characters named John, too. So kind of just a nod to John Wayne's original name.
00:12:31
Speaker
That's pretty cool. Do you think John, just because it's one syllable, it's quick, it's common? Yeah. You know, the easy name. That's cool. That's a nice little touch that they have in there. The Cobra, as they call them once in the very beginning, which is such a cool part when they're just like bringing the Cobra. Like, yeah, it's awesome. Rolls in in his car. So he is a part of what is called the zombie squad for the police department, which is like, how would we describe it? They deal with the stuff that nobody else wants to deal with.
00:12:58
Speaker
Usually at night, usually kind of on their own terms too. You know, we'll look the other way on how you deal with this problem. And then the car he drives, it's kind of like takes on its own personality. Yeah. It's a custom 1950 Mercury, a car that was actually owned by Stallone. Oh, okay. But they produce multiple versions of the car to use for stunts and all that kind of stuff.
00:13:20
Speaker
But yeah, his actual car is in the movie. Why do you think the license plate said A.W.S.O.M. 50? So awesome 50. What does that mean? Maybe one through 49 were taken. Yeah, yeah. Is it 50 because of the year? Like, is that it? Oh, maybe that's lame. I don't like that. I don't want it to be that.
00:13:39
Speaker
I like cars. We talked about this in our Gone in 60 Seconds episode about like car stuff, but is that actually a cool car? I want it to be. There's no way that that car is actually fast, right? I don't think it's practical. I would describe it as like retro futuristic, like kind of sleek, but like really old school looking. Like the hubcaps are like those big like metallic, you know, there's no like design on them or anything, but like it doesn't look like it moves.
00:14:02
Speaker
No at all. In the movie, he has NOS like a NOS, nitrous oxide injector in the car. Right. Do you think Vin Diesel saw this movie and was like, that's what we need. I need a black, cool, awesome car that has NOS. Probably. And thus we have the Fast and Furious franchise. I would love it if that was the inspiration. Man, someone needs to ask him what else we got?
00:14:27
Speaker
All right, you got Brigitte Nielsen as Ingrid Knudsen. She was Stallone's real wife at the time. She is a model and she does a very, I don't know the word to describe her photo shoot, but it's odd with the robots. It was so weird. It was really weird. I feel like Stallone had a thing for robots at this time because in Rocky 3, they had the weird like robot
00:14:51
Speaker
In this movie, he was really sexualizing robots in Rockin' 3 and in this movie. Yeah, they kind of just like hit it off real quick. In the movie? It was a weird relationship, yeah. Within like 12 hours, she's making such a pass at him. Yeah. I felt like they didn't have great chemistry for a married couple. No, it felt very disjointed. Yeah, I didn't know that they were married before watching this.
00:15:15
Speaker
Oh, OK. Learned it afterwards. I was like, really? Like, surprising. Spoiler alert, it did not last much longer. Yes. They're not still married. They didn't even make it out of the decade. Oh, well. All right. Also appearing in this film is Brian Thompson. He plays the night slasher, the leader of the cult that is terrorizing California. His voice is weird in this. There's no way that was his real voice, right? No, it sounded like he had dubbed or I don't know.
00:15:44
Speaker
You won't do it, pig. You won't shoot. Murder is against the law. You have to take me in.
00:15:51
Speaker
I'm going to get you. I can't even do it. Yeah. Yeah. It was so weird. It was like pretty disturbing. It was creepy. It did a good job at bringing in like a part of being an action movie. Like it had some pretty brutal scenes in it. Yes. Yes. Fun fact about Brian Thompson. Do you know that he had to buy his own ticket to see the film because he was not invited to the premiere, which he still kind of like what like to this day is like, why? Why didn't you invite me?
00:16:16
Speaker
I know him and the quote unquote director, because we all know Stallone actually directed this movie, but they're like credited director and him did not get along. But that is the weirdest thing ever. It's odd. Yeah. Yeah. And last but not least, we have old friend Art Lafleur. He plays Captain Sears. You may know him as Babe Ruth in the Sandlot and also just a friend of the pod. He was in The Replacements as one of the coaches. Always nice seeing our old pals. I love getting the gang back together.
Over the Top's Cast & Arm Wrestlers
00:16:45
Speaker
Well, for over the top, we have Stallone, who we said plays Lincoln Hawk. He is a truck driver who is trying to reconnect with his son who he has not seen in a long time, who also is an arm wrestler and enters the arm wrestling championships. I don't know. When you think too much about this plot, like you're like, am I saying words? What is is what I'm saying? Actual English? Yeah, I don't know.
00:17:08
Speaker
Stallone said he agreed to do this movie because they kept offering him more and more money. He got paid between $10 to $12 million, which was the most for an actor at that time, which is kind of sad. I never like it when actors come out after the fact and say things like, just own it. It's fine if you did the movie for a paycheck, but it's not a bad movie. So they were considering actor Don Johnson for the role, but then when they were able to get Stallone, who was so hot at the time, they were like, oh, we got to go with this.
00:17:35
Speaker
You have Robert Loggia as Jason Cutler. He is the evil grandfather. The name Jason on an old man seems very weird to me. It's a little out of place. Yeah. Like I know that there's going to be a lot of grandfathers once we are that age because there was a good amount of people within like the 10 years of us with the name Jason. But like I feel like he's like 100 years old now.
00:18:00
Speaker
Jason should have been like Clyde or something. Earl. I don't know. Robert Logie has had a very long career. He's been in a ton of stuff. One of his most notable roles in Officer and a Gentleman. He has a wild part in that movie. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, just watch the first like five minutes of that movie. Make sure no one else is around. It's crazy.
00:18:22
Speaker
I do like the evil parents grandparent's trope. I think that it creates like a pretty good villain. Yeah. And he also has like control over a lot of situations, you know, which makes it a little more scary. And he was just like a mean, rich guy, too. Yeah, it was like unlimited resources. You kind of do whatever you wanted.
00:18:38
Speaker
There's that one part in the movie where Lincoln Hawk's son gets kidnapped and then Hawk saves him. But we find out that it's the grandfather trying to kidnap him with his like hired thugs or whatever. How was he going to explain that to him? That was like a pretty traumatic kidnapping. It was like, oh, sorry, I needed to get you back here. So I hired these people to basically steal you. And he didn't think that went through.
00:19:00
Speaker
And especially like later in the movie where he finds out where everyone is. So he just takes this jet there. I'm like, couldn't he just have flown somewhere and like met them? And yeah, right. Speaking of Lincoln Hawk son, we have David Mendenhall as Michael Hawk. As an inside joke, the writers named the character Michael because with the last name of Hawk, that means that his nickname would be Mike Hawk, say Mike Hawk a couple of times fast. Yeah, you can do the math there. Yeah.
00:19:27
Speaker
That's pretty kind of funny that they did that. Touche for them. There's some pretty cool fictional names in this movie. Those are like the big main actors and stuff, but the fictional names of the other arm wrestlers, you've got The Smasher, Bull Hurley, Billy Bob from Texas.
00:19:48
Speaker
I mean, come on Varsity Blues, you've taken it from that. John Grizzly, Slammin' Carl Adams, and Mad Dog Madison. There's a couple other names. Those were the pretty cool ones that stood out to me. Which one of those is your favorite? I like John Grizzly, just because that guy was a psycho. I think maybe because more of his attitude. I think Bull Hurley. That was a good one. I just got to give it to Billy Bob. Billy Bob? Just Billy Bob.
00:20:12
Speaker
out of pure satisfaction that it made me think of Billy Bob from Varsity Blues. So what do you think? If I'm being honest, I think the actual cast, it's like pretty even here. There's no one that really stands out. It's Stallone and then, you know, a bunch of other kind of supporting people. So I think if you're looking at this category, you probably got to look at performance. Did either of these performances make you feel anything? Personally, I think the performances in Over the Top were better. I think mainly for Robert LaGia,
00:20:40
Speaker
Even David Mendenhall, like, he did a pretty good job. Yeah, yeah, it's hard being a kid actor and I didn't get really annoyed at him too, too much. No, in the beginning, yes, but I think he played the role really well. Yeah, yeah. The grandfather character, though, he did a good job of making you really dislike him. Yeah, exactly. It's weird, but like you like when a character can make you feel that way. He's doing something right to make you feel that way. Oh, I hate this guy.
00:21:05
Speaker
All right, so we will give that round two over the top. Alex, what do you got Seinfeld or friends connections in these movies?
Cobra's TV Show Connections
00:21:12
Speaker
Yeah, so really just from Cobra, you got a few from Seinfeld and one from friends. So in Cobra, the other detective Gonzalez, he is played by Renny Santoni. He plays Poppy from Seinfeld. Poppy owns the restaurant, doesn't wash his hands, gets shut down, later pees on Jerry's couch. Great character.
00:21:30
Speaker
Then you have Lee Garlington. She played the police officer who was also in the cult. So she was like the inside inside man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She has a ton of TV credits. She was actually in the pilot episode of Seinfeld, which is pretty cool. Oh, and then she appeared in one episode in season one of Friends. OK.
00:21:47
Speaker
And then Marco Rodriguez, he plays the supermarket killer in the very beginning of Cobra. And then he also plays Guillermo, who is a Cuban that comes to America to roll cigars for Kramer in a mix up of all sorts, but great character in Seinfeld. And he's the guy that's shooting up the grocery store, all the fruits and vegetables at the beginning. Very cool. Okay.
Iconic Lines & Action in Cobra
00:22:12
Speaker
Round two, best lines or moments.
00:22:18
Speaker
Yeah, so speaking of the supermarket scene that we had previously talked about in Cobra, it was just such an intense way to start the movie. You kind of get a taste of this New World cult, whatever that they're about. The dude comes in, just kind of shoots everything, except for people at first. Yeah, why did you shoot that? He was just like, I hate produce. Yeah. We need a New World without all this fruit.
00:22:43
Speaker
it was weird but then the then the dude is like we need the cobra which was like yes and he like immediately pulls out yeah yeah so it's like okay you got the hero and you got the enemy like right away and you're like alright this is gonna be the battle you know he's in the supermarket he cracks open the cores he's just
00:23:01
Speaker
This is so cool. I mean, that was just the coolest that he takes the sip of the cores, throws it at the guy to like distract him. There's just so much product placement in this movie. It's insane. Yeah. Pepsi Coke cores. I did really, really like that one Pepsi advertisement they had. It was like the massive, yeah, overblown Pepsi pouring into an overblown cup and it like the water was spinning. So it looked like it was actually pouring. I know it was product placement. It was so in your face, but it was still cool.
00:23:31
Speaker
Yeah. All I kept thinking was like, how much did Pepsi pay to be featured this much in the supermarket scene? You got some good lines. You got the guy who is shooting the place up. Go ahead. I don't shock her. So good. You're a disease on the cure, which is on the poster. The poster for Cobra is amazing. It really I need it. I need it up here somewhere. That's such a good line. The disease and I'm the cure. You're a disease of the cure.
00:24:01
Speaker
So good and then even when like he's got his car and he's pulling up and the guy is like parked weird Yes, we like bumps him guys smoking and he's like this Befrio and the guys like what is me?
00:24:14
Speaker
Who says that? I feel like 98% of his dialogue in this movie is just one-liners. It really is. You got any other scenes? The hospital scene, so Night Slasher gets into the hospital, he's looking for Ingrid, and he changes up his look because, you know, his face has been seen, so he's got to change it up. It looks the same to me. Whatever.
00:24:33
Speaker
But he dresses up as like the custodian and then the nurse or whoever the orderly is just like, you know, give him a hard time. And he's like, really hold him back like, I'm not going to kill this lady. But that's just that whole scene is really intense. It almost felt like horror movie esque to me. Like it was very thrilling, scary at times, decently well acted. It was good. That was an intense scene. It was an intense scene. Yeah.
00:24:54
Speaker
And then, yeah, even the last scene, like the shootout, the climax of the whole film, you know, they track them down and then the cult comes in and they kind of get away and they end up in the steel factory, steel mill, whatever that place is. There's always one of those in a movie that right. It looks like like a lava factory to me. I was like, are they producing lava? What's happening?
00:25:14
Speaker
There's a security guard, but that's it. Where's everyone else? Why is no one else at work? That's a good question, yeah. Super intense. It was a great showdown. I love a good showdown scene. I liked the last scene a lot. Good showdown between him and the bad guy. A couple things leading up to it, when the cult members come on all their motorcycles and they have the huge shootout, did you see how bad it looked every time one of those guys got shot? They wouldn't fall off the motorcycle. They literally would do a side jump. Yeah. You just got shot in the face.
00:25:44
Speaker
Yeah. You have the ability to do like a shooting star off of the motorcycle. I thought that was like the most chaotic cult I've ever seen. I'm like, why didn't they just like park the motorcycles and maybe get off and take cover and whatever. It was a great scene. It was exciting. Yeah, it was good.
00:26:01
Speaker
And that final showdown, Cobra has a match in his mouth the entire movie. I like how it finally pays off. He's fighting the guy and he lights the match, lights the guy on fire, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then he's like, you have the right to remain silent. I think that was my favorite line at all. I was like, yes.
00:26:20
Speaker
The bad guys just like called him pig so many. What's your eyes, pig? Yeah, at least like 36 times. I was like, all right, we get it. And then he has the other good line. This is where the law stops. And I start. Sucker, sucker.
00:26:39
Speaker
Who takes the time out of the middle of their fights to... Honestly, if I ever get in a fight at this point, I'm just going to try to throw the guy off by saying lines like that. All the Stallone lines, just wait for one to land. There was one more line that the Night Slasher is trying to amp up his cult and he's like, we're the future. And he goes, no, you're history. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:27:00
Speaker
I love it. When that bad guy's like screaming pig, it's like zooms in on his face and every time he says pig, just so much spit comes off. Oh, yeah. And apparently Stallone told him, for your close up, I want you to drink as much water as you can so we can see your spit on camera. Interesting choice by director Stallone there. He's the artist. We're not gonna question it.
Arm Wrestling in Over the Top
00:27:18
Speaker
For over the top, the first arm wrestling scene in the random diner is really good. The guy comes up, you all challenges him to an arm wrestling match. We don't really know what's happening. Ends up being a back alley dark web arm wrestling match.
00:27:34
Speaker
I love when Mike is like, are you going to fight that guy? It's like, no, I'm going to do something way more embarrassing. Yeah. We're going to have a patty cake contest. The guy comes up to him and he's like, I'm the smasher. And Stallone just says, that's a nice name.
00:27:53
Speaker
I love it. But then they set up the arm wrestling pads and whatever and the guys like getting all pumped up and it's just the lone walking with his hat. And then as soon as he like turns the hat backwards, he gets this crazed look on his face. It's kind of crazy. They make you care about this arm wrestling. Oh, yeah. You're like invested. You're in need this guy to win. We're like cheering. He hasn't really done anything at that point to make us cheer for him. Yeah. Come on.
00:28:21
Speaker
Did you see how sweaty he was through this whole movie? He was dripping sweat, yeah. So he was dripping sweat walking towards the match. Yeah. Then after the match, it looked like he just jumped into a pool. Then in a couple of scenes later when he's in the jail, he's dripping sweat from just like sitting. It's like, oh man, you should get that checked out.
00:28:39
Speaker
Then after that, once he gets to the arm wrestling tournament, it's really good. There's a lot of like good scenes, funny scenes. Obviously, you and I like sports movies, so we're going to be kind of invested in the outcomes of things. I love when they're interviewing the arm wrestlers before their matches. And the newcomer from the truckers division, Lincoln Hawk. Lincoln Hawk over here. I'll tell you the truth. The truck is the most important thing for me. I don't really. It doesn't matter if I become
00:29:08
Speaker
the champion or anything. That's not the most important. I need this truck. What are you mumbling about? What are you talking about? So he needs the truck because he thinks the truck is what's going to allow him to get his son back or had he just given up at that point on his son? I don't know. Let's not think too much about it. In that whole lead up, his arm wrestling warm up is just the funniest thing I've seen in the movie in a long time.
00:29:34
Speaker
And I'm going to try to describe it for the listeners. Yeah. Yeah. So he puts his arm in the arm wrestling position and then he just does super fast arm wrestling slams. It would be like a boxer, like practicing jabs. Yeah. But he's doing that as like a arm wrestling motion, like really quick, which is like moving his arm up and down like so fast.
00:29:55
Speaker
It's like if you were arm wrestling your kid, that's how easily you would win, and that's what he's practicing. Think about if you went to a door and they didn't have a doorbell, so you had to knock on the door, but then instead of just knocking like a normal human, you were like, I'm going to knock as hard and loud and fast as I can. Yeah, how many knocks can I get in in five seconds? But that was so funny, and I know we'll get into this scene a little bit in a different category, but once it gets down to the final eight, it's really good. Bull says, I drive truck, brake arms, and arm wrestle.
00:30:22
Speaker
Great line then he's about to arm wrestle the one guy and he eats the cigar and then and then drinks Drinks motor oil like he's dead a day later, right? Did you see he had some Alka seltzer later? He was chugging it I was like, that's so good. That was a nice little touch. Yeah, that guy's not making it out of Vegas No, no John Grizzly
00:30:42
Speaker
I was curious why Stallone was wearing like a woman's shirt throughout that contest. That's definitely a woman's shirt. The one I'm talking about, you can Google it. He's wearing a black New York shirt, but it has like the really wide neck. It's like a crop top with the angled sleeves.
00:30:59
Speaker
The fashion of this era with like the muscly dudes. Really interesting. Yeah. I'm glad I avoided that. Spoiler alert, he ends up winning the arm wrestling contest, wins $100,000 prize money. The truck is worth $250,000 and he had 20 to 1 odds on himself and he put $7,000 on him. So that would give him $140,000. He made out pretty well. Yeah, he did all right. This is so close to me. Honestly, like I really like the arm wrestling scenes. It's so dumb, but I just really liked it. But Cobra just had such good one liners. Yeah.
00:31:29
Speaker
The arm wrestling, like if you were going to frame it as like a sports movie, it's got all the parts to it. You know, it's inspiring the underdog. It's exciting. Cobra man, though, like the one liners are better. Yeah. Just like some of those scenes are really intense. Like they're really good. Yeah. That's where I lean. I think you're right. I think we got a good Cobra here. Yeah. That gives us a one to one score heading into round three.
Comparing Titles & Soundtracks
00:31:52
Speaker
Better title and better soundtrack.
00:31:56
Speaker
I really, truly believe if Over the Top had a better soundtrack and better score, it would have been a much better received movie. It had a ton of like really weird 80s, rock, some Frank Stallone music. It felt very cheesy 80s music. And I don't think it needed to be like super intense, but I think there's a way to balance it where it could have gotten you a little bit more involved on the emotional arc of the story and not just like the arm wrestling.
00:32:23
Speaker
Stallone was apparently unhappy with the final version of Over the Top, and one of the things he said he would have scored music instead of rock songs, I do think using a score in Over the Top would have helped immensely. For the title, Over the Top, they said Over the Top 478,000 times in the movie, almost like too much. The original title was Meet Me Halfway, but the movie was less focused on arm wrestling. Over the Top is like, it's a fine title.
00:32:49
Speaker
Meet me halfway, I've been like oof yikes. Oh no, that movie makes negative dollars. Question for you. Why is it called over the top? Is it the move like when he repositions his hands and like tries to drive the dude's arm in a certain way? Or is it from the tournament? We call this part over the top. I don't know.
00:33:05
Speaker
Weird scene, but when he rolls up to like that arcade and he's like hey random kids come arm-wrestled my son random children Yeah, you really get away with a lot in the 80s Yeah, if someone comes up to you and asks you to do that just run the other direction But then he's like Mike over the like he's like you got him you got him over the top But he never taught like I kind of wanted him to like teach him I was waiting for that too five seconds to be like yeah slide your fingers over and then drive forward. Yeah
00:33:29
Speaker
That's why I call it over the top I've seen this movie before a couple times when I'm watching it this time during that scene I'm waiting in my mind I really thought he said to him after he loses the first match and runs away and then he goes and gets him I really thought he said to him look you got to let him get you all the way down And then you adjust your fingers over his thumb and you go over the top of him
00:33:49
Speaker
yeah right but it didn't happen because you could see he does something because the kid is like he's looking and then afterwards he's like how did he do that yeah and i was like that's the move like yeah isn't that the reason it's called and i don't think it's genetic like you gotta learn it right you're not born just being like wait a second when he's born his right arm was much bigger than his left
00:34:07
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I think it probably either one. You could take it. Cobra is a really cool name. Music didn't really distract me. It was what it was. It wasn't great, but it was whatever. Yeah, it was fine. It was 80s. You know, the movie title Cobra is sick. I just love on the poster where it's like Cobra Stallone. Yeah, that's great. That's so cool. The fact that the movie poster is so unbelievably cool and the name Cobra is really great. We're going to have to give this one to Cobra. Yeah, I think Cobra takes this one too.
00:34:33
Speaker
two to one cobra entering round four. Bigger plot holes, more cringy, random questions.
Humorous Plot Holes & Oddities
00:34:42
Speaker
This first thing, it's not really a plot hole, but I have to bring it up. What in the literal F is happening when he's cutting the pizza with scissors at his apartment? He goes back after the supermarket scene, saves the day. He goes back to his apartment. He pulls out a box of pizza from the fridge. He pulls the piece out and you're like, oh, he's going to eat this. There's one slice left.
00:35:03
Speaker
Does one slice in one slice in an entire box. He takes it out and you're like, oh, he's going to take a bite of pizza. Fine, whatever. But then he takes out a pair of scissors and just cuts a little triangle off the bottom and then eats the triangle. What kind of sociopath does that?
00:35:19
Speaker
I was so weird. I don't like, I like pause it. I was like, why? Like, I don't even think it was food scissors. Was it? I don't think he just pulled them out of his drawer. Yeah. It's like normal scissors. He cuts it. Have you ever, I don't even know if I ever, I don't think I've ever seen anybody use scissors on pizza. No, I, I know.
00:35:37
Speaker
I have not. And then he also has like an egg carton, but he doesn't have eggs in it. I don't know. I just, I couldn't get past the fact that he cut the bottom triangle off his pizza and that was his lunch. Just like one, one triangle of triangle.
00:35:53
Speaker
That was smaller than a bagel bite. Yeah. But they didn't even acknowledge it. They just they did it. It was so normal. You think he's like, oh, hey, guys, I've got a great idea here. This is going to really, you know, really explain a lot about my backstory. Just watch. Just keep the cameras rolling. You're going to love it. They're probably all looking at each other like, uh, do we kind? Hey, maybe do we want to do another run at that? No, that was perfect. Regine! Regine!
00:36:19
Speaker
Do you think he ate the entire pizza that way? Like he's had that pizza for three weeks and he just takes a little triangle like every day. What do you think happens when he gets to the crust? Something weird. I don't know, man. I loved it and hated it simultaneously. It was so good. Anyway, don't you think that the city would be on lockdown after 16 murders in like a short span? 100%. There would be curfews. It would be everything. Yeah. They were just like, yeah, just live your life. They're like, don't worry about it. Also,
00:36:46
Speaker
The timeline of that first night from when the person gets killed under the overpass to the modeling shoot to the hospital scene, it really doesn't add up. Brigitte Nielsen's character says that she saw the night stalker at the overpass at 10 p.m. So then she goes and does a photo shoot, the sexy robot photo shoot thing.
00:37:07
Speaker
while the police investigated the overpass motor. That's when Cobra gets assigned to the case and investigates the entire city, apparently. He just walks around asking everybody. So then she gets attacked in the parking lot after the photo shoot ends up at the hospital. Then she gets attacked at the hospital. It's all this is still night. It's still dark out. Yeah. So we're supposed to believe that all of this happened in like a span of like six hours.
00:37:31
Speaker
Alright, cool. Just wanted to put it out there. I'll take it. That's the answer. Maybe it's something with the pizza. You can slow down time. The only cringy stuff I have about Cobra was both of these movies, Over the Top and Cobra, had a lot of lines about eating healthy and how sugar is bad. But then Cobra had Pepsi and Coke all over it. Yeah.
00:37:54
Speaker
You think like Stallman was like, I don't really agree with sugar, but if we need it for the money, that's fine. But I'm going to write in some dialogue about not eating sugar, that'll show them. And then we'll shoot all the produce in the grocery store. And then I'll show myself only eating a tiny bite of pizza to talk about portion control with the scissors. Please semester, not the scissors. Some random questions. The crime stats in the beginning are definitely not accurate. No.
00:38:21
Speaker
That's all I got. Anything stand out to you? Yeah. I just want to talk about the cult real quick. So we're led to believe that there's like this uprising of a cult called a new world and they're trying to purge the world of the week. Yes. But all they do is kill helpless women. Not a great commentary. That's it. Like, yeah.
00:38:38
Speaker
They're not taking out like politicians or- And produce. And produce, right. And they all drive motorcycles. It was a weird cult. They banged axes against each other or what were they banging against? That part like at the beginning, it was like, oh, like this is weird. Like, yeah, I'm into this. But that was it. Like they never showed anything about like their beliefs other than kill. Let's just say the cult wasn't really fleshed out. It wasn't. And it was fine. We all were on the same page. It was fine. It was fine.
00:39:06
Speaker
What do you got for over the top? I'm going to start with a big one here. So during the course of the movie, we we know that Sylvester Stallone plays Lincoln Hawk. But there's a lot of times in the movie where he is referred to as Lincoln Hawks, plural, even he calls himself that. And even if you watch the trailer for this movie when it first came out, yeah, the voiceover guy calls him Lincoln Hawks.
00:39:27
Speaker
What happened? This might be one of the biggest mess ups in movie history that they call the person by two different last names multiple times. Interchangeable. It's like, oh, they don't and then they do for a while and then they don't. And then even the letters that that Mike finds that he writes to him, they're all addressed to Christina Hawks with an S.
00:39:47
Speaker
Yeah, but he's credited as Lincoln Hawk. Do you think that he was named Lincoln Hawks? And then about halfway through filming, he thought Hawk was a cooler last name? Probably. Like Hawk could be a nickname if you're Hawks, I guess. Like you could call them both. Or do you think it took Stallone halfway through filming to realize that his son's name was Mike Hawk? Yeah, right.
00:40:12
Speaker
And so he was like, well, maybe if we make it Hawks, it won't be as noticeable. So we'll call him Michael Hawks instead of Mike Hawks. Yeah. I don't know. Something weird happened. That was so weird. All right. So then Mike drives to the airport, not pulled over. Also knows exactly where to go. Yeah. That was something. How did the grandfather know that he was going to be going to the Hilton for the arm wrestling tournament? Like does the grandfather know about the arm wrestling past? Is that what the feud was between these?
00:40:42
Speaker
I feel like the feud was the grandfather just didn't want his daughter with a trucker. I don't know. Like it would have seemed like the grandfather was working for a secret spy organization. How easily he could find these people. Yeah, that's weird. Also, did he have to sell his truck and then bet it all on himself when he would only win that money back if he won. But if he won, he would have won $100,000 and a truck.
00:41:07
Speaker
No, he did not need to sell his truck. Convenient for him that the prize was a new truck. You sell it afterwards or something. What if you win? Yeah. Yeah. I guess some sports stuff here. OK. You know, me and you big sports guys, all the sports. But have you ever heard of professional arm wrestling? No, I have not. Have you heard about underground arm wrestling? That only happens at roads, diners on the road.
00:41:31
Speaker
Yes, actually. Yeah. No, no. Never heard of that. Never heard of that. Yeah. When we went on a road trip, we we definitely should have hit up more diners. Yeah. And you never know what challenging people to arm wrestling contest. Also, like not until like the very end, were there anything that were really close, like any of the matches and how many people were in this, like 500 competitors and there wasn't a single close match until the end.
00:41:58
Speaker
And then, yeah, we've talked about the semi-finals like being eight people and there'd be quarterfinals. The whole structure of the tournament was just, I didn't really understand. Cause then the final was four people. It was double elimination, but only Sylvester Stallone, only Lincoln Hawk was shown losing any matches. And they just kept saying it like, thanks for like driving home that plot point. But.
00:42:19
Speaker
Well, and they made it like really clear. They were like, Bull has never lost. Bull has never lost. And then he loses once. But it's double elimination. Would you have to beat him twice? Like, wouldn't Lincoln Hawk only have to lose once? Do you know what I was thinking? So I guess you have to be right handed to arm wrestle? Yeah, I think you would. I think it's like the same etiquette as handshakes.
00:42:38
Speaker
Yeah. You got a handshake righty. It stinks if you're a lefty. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. All right, some some cringy stuff. Just the part where they we call this round over the top. I don't know. They thought we were dumb. Same with the double elimination stuff. Like just that stuff was like, all right, we get it. Yeah, so many times.
00:42:55
Speaker
So some random questions for you. How about like when everyone is just like staring at him when he enters the school? Yeah. Who's that guy? Like he's like a pariah. Like why is he there? It's like, I don't know. He's a really attractive, ripped guy. Like he's not like he was wearing like dirty clothes or like, you know, he looked put together. Yeah.
00:43:13
Speaker
Like, did all the parents know who every single parent was or knew his backstory? So like, why is he here? Yeah, I don't know. That was weird. Do these people travel with their arm wrestling equipment, like the mats and stuff? All I know is next road trip you and I do, we are definitely going to travel with arm wrestling. We're packing it all towels for our elbows. Yep. Yep. Yeah.
00:43:34
Speaker
Do you think he's a good trucker? If I'm being honest, no, I don't love the thought of a person operating a semi truck and doing forearm exercises at the same time. And then there's like that one scene where they show him clearly driving on the wrong side of the road.
00:43:49
Speaker
See that. Yes. Going on that turn. And then he's letting his like little kid drive a semi truck. Made no sense. Yeah. On the actual road. What? Like, no, please keep this guy away from trucks. Yeah. OK. I have the same thoughts. Are you allowed to bet on yourself in a competition such as this? I don't know. I just think Pete Rose must have really hated this movie. He was like, wait, what? He's like, he's getting rewarded for this. He's winning a truck. I have the most hits ever.
00:44:20
Speaker
Yeah, anyway. So there were a lot of people saying, oh, he cheated, he cheated. But how do you how do you cheat in arm wrestling? Like they had that one part like they slipped off the mat and they're like, oh, if they slip, then we get the strap out. Yeah. The referees are like, just there's. Well, do you just lift your elbow? Then they'd be like, no, I can't do that. Like you can't cheat.
00:44:40
Speaker
They kept me like, lay off my thumb, lay off my thumb, but it's like, the refs are staring right at it and there's not much else to look at. But even like the little kids said that in the diner, he was like, oh, he cheated. That's not the weirdest part of this. The weirdest part is that a man said, you want to arm wrestle my son? Yeah.
00:44:59
Speaker
Let's talk about the real disturbing stuff. Okay. Why why is the prize a truck though? Is that just like the most convenient thing in the world? I don't know because they were like we have a trucker's division, but they had a women's division But it was that it was there only two divisions and like what was the prize for the women's division?
00:45:14
Speaker
it was 50 grand. That's all that's what they said. Okay. Yeah. So like half the money, but they didn't say anything else. So title nine, clearly not around back then. No, no. Yeah. They mentioned all the people from all over the world, France, Japan, Germany, Canada, and then a trucking division, which, which leads me to believe he had to qualify through the trucking division to win the trucking division.
00:45:34
Speaker
But also they made it seem like the trucking division was filled with the best arm wrestlers. I would have thought bull would have been from the trucking division because from the first the first scene, you know, like the rest. Oh, wait, is that what happened? So Stallone won the trucking division. He's representing the trucking division. So like, oh, I thought they all were truckers.
00:45:54
Speaker
I felt so confused about the trucking thing. I don't even want to think about it anymore. No, that had to be the trucking, the total trucking division, because why else would the prize be a truck? What if somebody was like an airline pilot? What am I going to do with a truck? Very confusing. Why is the trucking division the world series of arm wrestling? Right. Just like arm wrestling goes through truckers.
00:46:18
Speaker
Yeah, that was that's weird. And like also like they kept saying like the challenger out of nowhere, but like everyone knew who he was. Yeah, he got challenged in the first diner they stopped at. Yeah. Like there's a whole backstory to this that we need to know more of. Yeah. All right. So here's the question for you. How many times would it take for Mike to say, can I ask you a question before you just like throw him out of your truck? Is he related to me? Yeah, he's your son that you haven't seen in 10 years.
00:46:44
Speaker
Well, if you haven't seen him in 10 years, like, yeah, whatever. Certainly. It would take like four if he said it four times. That's the number four. And then I'm making him ride on the back of the truck. And if he knocks on the back window, it says, can I ask you a question when it kind of come to the truck? Then I'm leaving about a rest stop. And he's calling the grandfather. You can have him. You can have him. He's almost like some kid at an arcade. Yeah.
00:47:08
Speaker
OK, here's the part that was when he gets out of the truck and runs across the highway. Yeah. Weird scene anyway. But why did Lincoln put his hat on? He took the time to find his hand, put it on. Oh, I know. Because he's sitting. He's in the truck. He doesn't have the hat on. Kid runs out of the truck. He finds the hat. That's when the hat makes the appearance, right? Yeah.
00:47:26
Speaker
Where did the hat come from? This kid's going to get hit by a car and you're worried if you're wearing your lucky hat. So good. You got any questions? So the grandfather's there to get Mike back because Mike runs away to go watch his dad in this contest. Grandfather finds Mike. He's watching, you know, the finals of the arm wrestling contest.
00:47:45
Speaker
Why would the grandfather, who at this point showed no mercy towards Lincoln, wait to leave? He says we will leave when the competition is over. Why? What do you care? Yeah, right. Like, are you a huge arm wrestling fan? Right. All right. So Hawk wins and that's supposed to magically move the grandfather into being like, you know what, you can have custody of your kid again, because at that point Stallone had already signed over the paper.
00:48:10
Speaker
so that the grandfather was the guardian. But because he won this arm wrestling contest, he won him over. That was the best. He was going to have to use that money to find a lawyer to get all that paperwork redone because he did sign it. That's the one part that didn't fit because that grandfather was way too cold and calculating to be won over by an arm wrestling. Yeah, right. Right. You just kind of like, yeah, he just like rolled over. He's a guy.
00:48:32
Speaker
Yeah. Do you think they should remake this movie? But instead of arm wrestling, it should be that UFC slap competition thing. But they should do it in the tone of dodgeball. So it should be like a straight comedy with a similar theme. No arm wrestling. We're doing that slap competition. Yeah, I'd watch that. I would watch that, too. Yeah, they should do it.
00:48:56
Speaker
Okay. You had way more questions, plot holes and the whole setup of the arm wrestling tournament. I'm just going to concede this point. Yeah. Cobra takes it. So Cobra in the lead three to one heading into round five, our miscellaneous question of the week, which movie had the better ending exit?
Movie Endings
00:49:19
Speaker
So we've got Cobra, they defeat the bad guys, the police captain, ask him, is there anything we can do for you? And he says, well, you can replace my car. And the captain's just like, it's not in our budget. I love that. He's like, what can we do? We can do anything for you. I need a new car. Nope.
00:49:34
Speaker
Yeah, no, not like, what? And then the mean cop that he didn't get along with says, like, no hard feelings. And he's like, no hard feelings. But then he punches him out. But he's doing that thing where he's holding his hand so tight so he can't fall. Then he steals the motorcycle. Brigitte Nielsen gets on the back and they drive away to the beautiful sound of Voice of America Sons by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band.
00:49:57
Speaker
it's one way to go out. Whereas in Over the Top, he wins the match, he wins his son back, he gets in the new truck, they drive off, they're talking about starting their own company, and they drive off to the song of Take It Higher by Larry Green. They're both kind of weird, they're both kind of cheesy. I don't know, what do you think? I think Over the Top ending is better in the sense that he gets the prize, he gets his son, and the song is better. Because like, Sherry Colby gets the girl. That relationship is not lasting.
00:50:27
Speaker
OK, he saved the city or whatever. That's great. Like, yeah, good job. But I don't know. It's kind of fleeting to me. Whereas I feel like over the top is more of like, you know, there's more closure. Also, it's a nice improvement. That truck definitely had a bed in the back. So they don't sleep. So they don't sleep sitting up. It's like like good night with the hat over the eyes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. So uncomfortable. Yeah. OK. Over the top is going to take this round. Round six.
Movie Trivia & Behind-the-Scenes
00:50:55
Speaker
Better trivia.
00:50:58
Speaker
So when Sylvester Stallone was signed to play the lead in Beverly Hills Cop, he did a lot of work on the screenplay, turning it into an action extravaganza that the studio could not afford. He eventually left Beverly Hills Cop and channeled his ideas for the project that was made into Cobra.
00:51:13
Speaker
I love Stallone, but I'm very happy he was not in Beverly Hills. Yeah. John Burzink, the real life arm wrestler who inspired the Lincoln Hall character, actually won in the trucker's class of the actual over the top tournament and won the Volvo truck. That was the grand prize in this movie. It's worth about 250,000. He then took that truck on a tour across the country to promote the film. So there are aspects of this movie that were based on real things. Yeah, that's pretty fun. I like that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:51:42
Speaker
All right, the opening credit font in Cobra is identical to the ones that they had been using for the rainbow logo for the previous year. And then that would forever be associated with that series. I know you love your fonts. I do. I love my fonts. So kind of lazy that they just like used it again or dislike. Yeah, I will say the over the top logo is so cool. That is cool. Yeah.
00:52:03
Speaker
So in the montage of arm wrestling towards the end of the movie, they show one competitor going so hard that his elbow breaks. This was Michael Bashu, who was a German national champion wrestler, and they were filming this scene for the movie. And that arm break was actually very real and unplanned. So his reaction when he screams at first, I was like, man, like, that's some good acting. No, that's real. He broke his arm.
00:52:25
Speaker
Yeah. All right. The body count in Cobra is 52. Wow. And out of those 52, 41 were killed by the Cobra. Oh, my gosh. That is a lot of this cleaning up. Yeah. Wow. My last one, a real life over the top arm wrestling tournament was created once the movie was approved for production. So they had qualifiers all over the country throughout North America. And then they even had some events in Europe, Israel and Japan.
00:52:53
Speaker
The finale took place in 1986 with an 18-hour marathon tournament in Las Vegas at the Hilton, and the movie featured many of these real-life arm wrestlers and footage from the finals, the only exceptions were the scenes that Stallone was in, whose matches filmed the day after the real finals.
00:53:12
Speaker
Kind of cool that they use real-life things in this movie. Decent trivia, not the best we've ever had. Not too bad. I like the body count. I like when people go through the hassle of tallying up and it's kind of ridiculous how many were killed by the good guy. Yeah, the good guy in the film killed everyone. But come on, Michael Batchew breaking his arm for real? Yeah. That's pretty cool. I feel like his pain should earn you a point. Yeah. I feel his pain.
00:53:39
Speaker
We are tied three to three going into round seven. I feel like this always happens, Alex. We really have not had many. We haven't had any runaways. They've been tight. It's fun to build everything up into what makes the movie the movie. So round seven, better story, script, or more fun.
Final Thoughts: Over the Top vs. Cobra
00:54:00
Speaker
Both of these movies are fun and both have completely opposite tones. I almost think Cobra is like a little too dark and I think over the top is a little too light. So they're both very different vibes. Cobra, the original ending was actually supposed to have the Cobra instead of punching that police officer at the end, he was supposed to rip his shirt off and he was going to have that the cult tattoo on him revealing that he was actually the leader of the cult, which I actually think could have been a pretty cool ending. Which one did you have more fun at?
00:54:28
Speaker
Two totally different types of fun. I feel like Cobra, you're on the ride with him through the city at night, cutting pizza with scissors as we do in the business. But over the top, you know, it's, it's more the feel good story, the underdog story, the sports angle of it. There's the parts with his wife or his ex wife, you know, when she passes away and you know, a lot of emotions. And when it comes down to it, I think the more memorable movie, the one that I take more away from and had more fun with in the end is actually over the top.
00:54:57
Speaker
When I think of the last set pieces of both movies, the ending of Cobra, you know, the final battle, not bad, some good one-liners, but in over the top, the final eight arm wrestling tournament scene is really good. And then, like I said, any movie that can make me care about the outcome of an arm wrestling match,
00:55:17
Speaker
Right. I mean, there's a lot of action movies that make me want the bad guys to get beat. There's only one arm wrestling movie that makes me care about the winner of the tournament. So I feel like we got to give this to over the top, but just barely, just barely double elimination over the top takes it in the second round. Yeah.
Movie Rankings & Recap
00:55:38
Speaker
So if we're going to go metaphors vindicated from I did, you know, on our on our New Year's recap, mentioned it was one of the worst things I watched. You know, I think I'll have to take that back.
00:55:46
Speaker
I think you should watch more movies if this was one of the worst things you watched. You're absolutely right. Well, you know, now I'm tracking everything. So I'm like, now I'm definitely not going to miss anything. And I'm going to intentionally maybe watch some bad movies just so this does not happen again. Well, great. Over the top takes the Battle of Stallone movies. I'm on a little bit of a hot streak here. You are. Yeah, you started hot. You got cold. Now you're hot again. Yeah. I mean, man, the 80s were a wild time for these movies. And I'm glad they happened. It's just fun. They're just good times.
00:56:15
Speaker
Okay, what are you ranking these? Really tight.
Conclusion & Next Showdown Tease
00:56:18
Speaker
I'm gonna go over the top at 72 and Cobra at 70. I went over the top at 70, Cobra at 69. Nice, look at that. Razor thin. Well, this was a fun first actual movie competition of 2024.
00:56:33
Speaker
You and I kind of mapped out what the rest of season one looks like and I am really excited about some of the movies we have coming up. Our next episode will be right after my birthday. So I picked two of my favorite movies of all time and we're going to put them head to head and it is going to be a blast. I'll give you a hint. One of those movies is a Stallone movie. I can't wait. I'm excited.
00:56:57
Speaker
And I think people are going to be shocked when they hear that these two movies are under a 60%. Absolutely agree. I was shocked when we first discussed it. I was like, no, no, Rob. We have a metric we're using. It has to be under a score. No, no, no. Look it up. It's under. Those are going to be two fun movies. Well, this has been The Movie Showdown with Rock and Rob.
00:57:16
Speaker
Make sure to like, subscribe, rate, and review all that fun stuff. And follow us on all the socials at Rockin' Rob Show. Until next time, peace. I'm outta here. See ya. Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this. And totally redeem yourself. I'm not sure what to do with my hands. By relation.
00:57:42
Speaker
That's your home! Are you too good for your home? Answer me! Hasta la vista, baby.