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PGW 36: Light the JOHN WICK on your Holiday Candles
4 Plays9 months ago
John Wick rules, we hope you all had a wonderful holiday, we will be back on schedule in the new year. We've had a wonderful time making this podcast and we are indebted to each of you lovely listeners. Happy New Year.
Love,
The Paddington boys
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Transcript
Introduction and Humor
00:00:00
Speaker
Somebody please get this man a podcast.
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Paddington Gone Wild, the internet's only podcast of which you cannot conduct any business.
00:00:11
Speaker
I am one of your hosts and the owner-operator of the Waco branch of the Continental Red Rankin, joined, as always, by my illustrious co-hosts.
Baba Yaga and John Wick Franchise
00:00:19
Speaker
The man who told those gentlemen they ought to leave the dog alone.
00:00:23
Speaker
That's Mr. Joe Hayes.
00:00:25
Speaker
That's true.
00:00:26
Speaker
I did say that.
00:00:29
Speaker
Cheron's replacement as concierge, Mr. Zach.
00:00:32
Speaker
Hello, hello.
00:00:34
Speaker
And the Baba Yaga himself.
00:00:37
Speaker
Yeah, baby.
00:00:37
Speaker
Austin Ingalls.
00:00:39
Speaker
Fuck him up.
00:00:40
Speaker
The boogeyman.
00:00:41
Speaker
The boogeyman who comes for other boogeymen.
00:00:44
Speaker
That's me.
00:00:44
Speaker
The Baba Yaga.
00:00:45
Speaker
The Baba Yaga.
00:00:47
Speaker
I love, I love, just to start, I love the amount of different ways that that term is said.
00:00:54
Speaker
Certain people say Baba Yaga.
00:00:55
Speaker
Some people say Baba Yaga.
00:00:57
Speaker
Some people say Beba Yaga.
00:00:58
Speaker
It just, it can never be less clear.
00:01:00
Speaker
It's an endless well of a chance to call Mr. Wick.
00:01:03
Speaker
And also just the classic, all the different accents saying Mr. Wick.
00:01:08
Speaker
Mr. Wick.
00:01:09
Speaker
Jonathan.
00:01:09
Speaker
It's funny you say that because I was thinking about like that iteration because you have everything from Wick and then like the V sound and then you go all the way from the V sound to the B replacement.
00:01:23
Speaker
Everything in between.
00:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, it's truly, you know, this is a multinational film franchise.
00:01:29
Speaker
It is.
00:01:30
Speaker
Indeed.
00:01:31
Speaker
Yeah, they're all over the place.
Rewatchability and Franchise Development
00:01:33
Speaker
Yeah, truly.
00:01:33
Speaker
So folks, if you haven't picked up on it, today is an episode of which we are going to be talking about and enjoying and getting to revel in the fun that is the John Wick franchise.
00:01:48
Speaker
This came about, I think, because Zach just happened.
00:01:52
Speaker
I can talk on that.
00:01:53
Speaker
I can speak to this, brother.
00:01:56
Speaker
I can speak on that.
00:01:57
Speaker
I think it was like Tuesday evening or so.
00:01:59
Speaker
I just put it on John Wick 1 and said, hey, these movies fucking rule.
00:02:03
Speaker
You want to talk about John Wick this week?
00:02:06
Speaker
And that's how it happened.
00:02:08
Speaker
It's not more complicated than that, and it doesn't need to be.
00:02:11
Speaker
It doesn't need to be.
00:02:12
Speaker
There's some movies that are eternally rewatchable.
00:02:15
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:18
Speaker
I rewatched all four movies.
00:02:20
Speaker
I almost went in for a third time, but I did go back through and watch certain scenes.
00:02:25
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:02:26
Speaker
Some are incredibly rewarding.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah, I would say.
00:02:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:30
Speaker
It's fantastic.
00:02:32
Speaker
It's, I feel like we're all a little bit sheepish of where to start because it's, I mean, we have done episodes of which we've talked about 12 movies and we've gone in depth on them.
00:02:46
Speaker
And yet for four movies that we all love that we're all excited about is it's like, where the fuck do you start?
00:02:51
Speaker
It's a bottomless pit.
00:02:53
Speaker
There's no, I think you just got to go in order because that's the way that, that's just the, that's just the vibes.
00:02:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:59
Speaker
I want to start by just talking about how much lore there is in this franchise, but also I want to go into that by thinking about how the movie started.
00:03:08
Speaker
And with John Wick 1, Stahelski, he had a loose script that did not end up becoming what he had envisioned in the first place.
00:03:18
Speaker
And that's not just how that first movie came about.
World-Building and Visual Style
00:03:21
Speaker
these movies generally had not much of a plan the whole time and just kind of invented themselves along the way which is just an insane thing to think about considering how much like pseudo historic lore is built into the movies that seems like it's like real papal history in some corners for sure the end of the day is just like utter absolute nonsense well the
00:03:46
Speaker
thing is is that it harkens back to a time in sci-fi and fantasy writing like pulp writing specifically where like i i feel like oh my cursor's still on my screen uh put it back okay hold on let me pick my nose with it there we go digging for gold um but these movies like there's a there's a new like
00:04:11
Speaker
law i guess when it comes to fantasy and sci-fi these days and and i don't blame brandon sanderson because i like the guy and i like his books but he did create this whole like way to think about uh fantasy and sci-fi where everything has to be logical and there needs to be like there needs to be like scientific reasons why all this fantasy shit works and it's linked into sci-fi like star wars is like that now where they there's like uh
00:04:39
Speaker
no, the force works this very specific way.
00:04:42
Speaker
The dead speak!
00:04:43
Speaker
Yeah, whereas, like, you know, when George Lucas was creating it in the first place, it was like, I don't know, he can use it and it works.
00:04:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:52
Speaker
And it does what he needs it to do at that moment.
00:04:55
Speaker
And so I think that's kind of how the world building of John Wick works, where they're like, okay, so the Russians, the Russian family is very Christian for some reason.
00:05:05
Speaker
And it doesn't matter.
00:05:07
Speaker
And also...
00:05:10
Speaker
everybody in Japan uses ninja weapons and they can use guns, but they don't want to.
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:16
Speaker
Don't ask questions.
00:05:18
Speaker
Don't ask questions.
00:05:20
Speaker
And business can't be conducted on continental grounds unless it's deconsecrated, which it can be reconsecrated if the plot requires.
00:05:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:29
Speaker
Yes.
00:05:30
Speaker
Which all it is to say are just kind of byproducts of a guy that has a stunt background and wanted to showcase how cool stunts can be.
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:43
Speaker
And then the story developed around it.
00:05:44
Speaker
But at the end of the day, this is Chad Stahelski.
00:05:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:48
Speaker
Keanu Reeves just saying, how can we do cool shit on screen?
00:05:51
Speaker
My wish list for the future John Wicks, if they're, you know, there's a John Wick 5 in development.
00:05:56
Speaker
Yeah, we're in development.
00:05:58
Speaker
John's not dead.
00:06:00
Speaker
We knew this.
00:06:00
Speaker
He's surely alive.
00:06:01
Speaker
Yeah, my John's not dead.
00:06:03
Speaker
We're roaring like a lion.
00:06:04
Speaker
Oh, Jesus.
00:06:06
Speaker
Oh my god That was really good Faith based podcast But My wish list is that we get We get Tom Cruise in here one time Oh my god I mean These movies have amazing cameo game
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah, they do better every time.
00:06:24
Speaker
I mean, it's like rewatching them.
00:06:27
Speaker
I was I had a funny order because I wanted to watch one of them with red, but I knew he'd already watched the first three.
00:06:33
Speaker
So he came over and we watched he watched the whole thing.
00:06:36
Speaker
I watched most of it.
00:06:36
Speaker
I drank too much whiskey and ate too much pizza and passed out.
00:06:39
Speaker
But we watched John McFour.
00:06:40
Speaker
Happens.
00:06:41
Speaker
It happens.
00:06:42
Speaker
And so I passed that to the point to where he could not wake me up to lock my own house as he left.
00:06:48
Speaker
I was out like a light bulb.
00:06:53
Speaker
We were watching four and I had only watched one.
00:06:55
Speaker
So I went one, four, two, three.
00:06:58
Speaker
And that's a very strange way to watch them because in four you have scars, Bill Skarsgård and Donnie Yen.
00:07:05
Speaker
And, um, what's the guy's name from Shogun?
00:07:07
Speaker
Fuck.
00:07:08
Speaker
I always forget his name.
00:07:09
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:07:09
Speaker
You know what I'm talking about.
00:07:11
Speaker
Rina Sawayama.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yep.
00:07:12
Speaker
The guy who runs the Continental, um, just like builds and, um,
00:07:17
Speaker
Scott Adkins.
00:07:18
Speaker
Scott Adkins playing my favorite fat suit character of all time.
00:07:23
Speaker
I told this to Red.
00:07:24
Speaker
When I saw the movie in theaters, I was convinced that was Cristiano Ronaldo in a fat suit.
00:07:29
Speaker
It looks like fat Cristiano Ronaldo so hard.
00:07:35
Speaker
You don't know if they're going to get a serious cameo or a funny cameo because in three, we get the Iron Chef.
00:07:42
Speaker
Yeah, you get Boban Marjanovic too at the beginning.
00:07:45
Speaker
Yes, you get like in the library.
00:07:47
Speaker
This is this is relevant.
00:07:49
Speaker
I the first John Wick movie I ever watched was Parabellum and it was on an airplane and I only fired it up because I saw that Bobar Marjanovic was in it.
00:07:59
Speaker
It's insane.
00:08:00
Speaker
And he's dead in like five minutes.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah, but he's so early on in the movie, and I love that, man.
00:08:06
Speaker
And yeah, that hooked me in.
00:08:07
Speaker
I didn't really know anything about the franchise before that, to be honest.
00:08:10
Speaker
Three is a weird place to jump in.
00:08:12
Speaker
It really is.
00:08:13
Speaker
Here's the thing, though.
00:08:14
Speaker
Rewatching these, I was thinking about how that was my first one and how much stuff you actually do need to know to follow the storyline.
00:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, dude.
00:08:21
Speaker
But looking back and thinking about my experience watching it the first time,
00:08:26
Speaker
I didn't feel like I was missing anything.
00:08:28
Speaker
I just felt like this is a quirky world and this guy is pissed off and wants to set things straight.
00:08:34
Speaker
And that is all I needed to enjoy that movie thoroughly.
00:08:36
Speaker
Pretty much.
00:08:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:38
Speaker
For sure.
00:08:38
Speaker
You can enjoy it just solely on an action movie level independently of its lore, which is what's so special.
00:08:45
Speaker
we'll talk about this later, but three is the silliest one.
00:08:48
Speaker
Like there's, there's action scenes in three that you're just like, what the, what the fuck is happening?
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:53
Speaker
It's, it's absurd in a way that I love, but I think there's also a degree of which, you know, we've, we've talked about the chats to Helski and we've talked about Keanu Chaz to Helski got introduced to Keanu.
00:09:04
Speaker
He was a stunt double.
00:09:05
Speaker
The first film also was, is co-directed by David Leitch, who has made a bunch of movies.
00:09:10
Speaker
I do not like,
00:09:12
Speaker
And one movie we kind of like.
00:09:14
Speaker
I'm pro Fall Guy.
00:09:16
Speaker
I like Fall Guy.
00:09:18
Speaker
I like everything but the directing of Fall Guy.
00:09:21
Speaker
But these are two stuntmen and...
00:09:26
Speaker
It like, and as Zach said, it is a celebration of stunts.
00:09:29
Speaker
And the thing is, is that they really lean into that in the second movie because in the first 60 seconds of the second movie, they're just straight up is a scene from a Buster Keaton film projected on a building.
00:09:42
Speaker
It's awesome.
00:09:42
Speaker
In Times Square.
00:09:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:44
Speaker
And it's a reminder of like,
00:09:48
Speaker
These are not movies meant to be understood or picked apart, and lore does not matter.
00:09:53
Speaker
They're vibes.
00:09:55
Speaker
It's all vibes, but it's really a... And Austin and I had this conversation offline, and I didn't go into it entirely because I wanted to bring it here, but...
00:10:08
Speaker
I think Stahelski and Reeves have a similar relationship that McQuarrie and Cruz have in the sense that these are two guys who sit down and they're like, what can we do?
00:10:18
Speaker
What are the ways that we can push this?
00:10:21
Speaker
They're discussing future scenes to do on the backs of motorcycles.
00:10:25
Speaker
Or while sprinting.
00:10:28
Speaker
But they have these conversations and then like, okay, so then how do we build the plot around that?
00:10:34
Speaker
You can imagine for John Wick chapter four that they were like, okay,
00:10:38
Speaker
So we think it'd be really fucking cool to have a scene of which Keanu drives around the Arc de Triomphe, but he's driving in the opposite direction, and he's in an American muscle car that both of the doors have been ripped off of.
00:10:53
Speaker
And we just think that'd be cool.
00:10:56
Speaker
I want to use my stunt driving training.
00:10:57
Speaker
But it's a thing of like...
00:11:01
Speaker
In the same way that a lot of... And Buster Keaton movies tend to be a lot more comic in the upfront sense, but in comparison to Mission Impossible, John Wick also is a, what are the ways that we can push the envelope and do something bigger and push Keanu's body harder and...
00:11:21
Speaker
All of that.
00:11:22
Speaker
On that note, these are pretty fucking funny movies.
00:11:25
Speaker
They're hilarious.
00:11:27
Speaker
100%.
00:11:28
Speaker
There's a scene that makes me laugh so hard every time.
00:11:30
Speaker
It's when Donnie Yen is about to execute this guy on his knees and holds the gun to his head and then holsters it saying, never mind, and then just triple combos him against
Character Depth and Motivations
00:11:41
Speaker
an oven instead.
00:11:43
Speaker
It's incredible.
00:11:45
Speaker
That's the thing that I love about these fights is that...
00:11:48
Speaker
When he's not fighting the low-level goons that he just dispatches with ease, when he's fighting one of the main guys, it's almost always out of a mutual respect.
00:12:00
Speaker
They're just like, all right, let's beat the shit out of each other.
00:12:02
Speaker
Which is very, very martial arts coded.
00:12:08
Speaker
So me and a couple of buddies last night were just watching YouTube videos pretty late into the night, and we watched a compilation of jackass moments.
00:12:17
Speaker
And we got to the one where they were trying to drop kick that guy's head because he said nobody could do it.
00:12:23
Speaker
And they were just like drop kicking each other.
00:12:25
Speaker
And I was like, that's like the spirit of this movie.
00:12:27
Speaker
It's just like boys going like, can we, we can beat this shit.
00:12:30
Speaker
I can beat the shit out of you.
00:12:31
Speaker
And he goes, no, I bet you can't.
00:12:33
Speaker
And they're like, yo, I bet I can.
00:12:35
Speaker
Well, I'm glad I read that you kind of drew in Mission Impossible because I do think they're sort of in conversation.
00:12:42
Speaker
But John Wick to me is so much less self-serious than Mission Impossible.
00:12:46
Speaker
Like Mission Impossible, I think in a good way, takes itself very seriously.
00:12:50
Speaker
Yes, they have a ton of fun and do insane shit.
00:12:53
Speaker
But like they're dealing with these huge stakes.
00:12:56
Speaker
They're dealing with like saving the world.
00:12:58
Speaker
John Wick is never saving the world.
00:13:00
Speaker
Ever.
00:13:00
Speaker
He's never tasked with that.
00:13:02
Speaker
He's only ever getting revenge or saving himself.
00:13:06
Speaker
And it's all so much smaller stakes while feeling like it's big because of the world that it's created and lives within.
00:13:14
Speaker
Importantly, he doesn't want to be doing any of the stuff that he's doing.
00:13:18
Speaker
I want to be at home chilling.
00:13:21
Speaker
With my dog.
00:13:22
Speaker
I want to put the game on and just like...
00:13:24
Speaker
you know, bro out with my dog.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's relatable.
00:13:28
Speaker
But do we really like it's the same thing of everyone being like, John, you can never go back.
00:13:34
Speaker
There is no John Wick like yada, yada, yada talking about how he can't go back.
00:13:38
Speaker
And then it's like I sort of agree because the thought is, is like what happens when he just gets home because his wife is dead.
00:13:46
Speaker
And so then he has his dog.
00:13:47
Speaker
Is he just walking his dog all the time?
00:13:51
Speaker
I don't think he's walking sports.
00:13:53
Speaker
I think John Wick has wanted to die since the first movie.
00:13:59
Speaker
He goes into all these situations thinking this is the fight I'm going to die in.
00:14:04
Speaker
And that ironically is what makes him keep going and keep taking risks that put him in the situations he's in.
00:14:11
Speaker
He's waiting for the right person to kill him.
00:14:13
Speaker
But yeah, I think the man kind of has a death wish because in the last movie, there's two types of people.
00:14:19
Speaker
Guys that have something to live for.
00:14:20
Speaker
Guys that have someone to fight for.
00:14:24
Speaker
Guys that have something to die for.
00:14:25
Speaker
It's live for, die for, kill for.
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I said.
00:14:31
Speaker
Yeah, sure, okay.
00:14:34
Speaker
He's just got to be lost in translation.
00:14:36
Speaker
He has none of them.
00:14:37
Speaker
No, no.
00:14:39
Speaker
He's only got his dog who doesn't even have a fucking name.
00:14:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's dog.
00:14:43
Speaker
Dog.
00:14:43
Speaker
Good boy.
00:14:45
Speaker
Good boy.
00:14:45
Speaker
I mean, it's like at the end of two when he shoots a man on continental grounds, he knows what he's doing.
00:14:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:53
Speaker
Like he knows exactly what he's doing.
00:14:54
Speaker
He is bringing death upon himself.
00:14:56
Speaker
And then the only thing that I think he's resigned to it.
00:15:00
Speaker
And then the kindness of Winston is,
00:15:04
Speaker
To give him an hour to escape is what continues to motivate him.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:09
Speaker
To keep going.
00:15:10
Speaker
It's kind of like, I mean, it's like the whole one must imagine Sisyphus as happy thing of like, okay, sure, maybe does John, okay, John doesn't want to be doing this.
00:15:21
Speaker
Yeah, okay, but he's going to be doing it for the rest of his life.
00:15:24
Speaker
And at a certain point, he's like, all right, I'm just going to fucking ball out on this guy.
00:15:28
Speaker
Yep.
00:15:29
Speaker
Yep.
00:15:30
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:15:31
Speaker
One must imagine John Wick shooting 900 people in the head as happy.
00:15:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:38
Speaker
And then when he gets to the top, Winston's like, all right, go back down again and come back up.
00:15:42
Speaker
I mean, literally that happened.
00:15:44
Speaker
Literally.
00:15:45
Speaker
The fourth movie has like a Sisyphusian act where he gets to the top of a hill and is forced to go back up the hill again.
00:15:51
Speaker
I definitely believe that's intentionally Sisyphusian.
00:15:54
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:15:54
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:15:57
Speaker
You guys want to start just talking about John Wick number one?
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, John Wick one.
00:16:02
Speaker
The way this movie starts is John Wick's wife, Helen, dies.
00:16:09
Speaker
I'm immediately going to have to stop myself.
00:16:12
Speaker
we talk about like how funny it is, is on Twitter, there's always the joke of like, if somebody posts a photo and it looks a little like, yeah, me or gray, like, is there like what dead wife in an action movie core?
00:16:26
Speaker
And I think that like, they like, I, it's really odd.
00:16:30
Speaker
Cause I think the first John wick is definitely my least favorite and is,
00:16:34
Speaker
really self-serious in a lot of ways.
00:16:37
Speaker
And like the music choices and the music cues.
00:16:42
Speaker
It's got maybe the worst needle drop of all time that I really love.
00:16:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:47
Speaker
And like, and just John on his iPhone four looking at a video of Helen.
00:16:53
Speaker
See, I, I love that shit because to me, what it feels like, it feels like an eighties movie.
00:17:00
Speaker
Like it feels like a shitty eighties movie.
00:17:03
Speaker
And that's what these movies set out to be at their inception.
00:17:06
Speaker
And then things got bigger.
00:17:08
Speaker
And then out of, out of both necessity to please an audience.
00:17:12
Speaker
And because they had the opportunity, they continue to get bigger.
00:17:15
Speaker
Well, and also, content-wise, I feel like, specifically for the first John Wick,
00:17:23
Speaker
If you have something new to say formally, which they did, they were like, let's do this shit for real.
Filmmaking Techniques and Performances
00:17:29
Speaker
Let's shoot it in wide shots, stable shots.
00:17:31
Speaker
We're not going to do a lot of handheld shit.
00:17:33
Speaker
We're not going to do a lot of editing to hide the hits.
00:17:36
Speaker
We're going to do stunts, and we're going to do it right, and it's going to look awesome.
00:17:40
Speaker
So they had something new to say formally.
00:17:42
Speaker
When you are doing something new formally, it's really not a great idea to do something new storytelling-wise.
00:17:49
Speaker
It's pretty crazy that Leech just forgot between John Wick 1 and Fall Guy that wide shots are awesome for stunts.
00:17:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:57
Speaker
I mean, in all of his movies, in fucking Bullet Train, by the way, that movie fucking sucks.
00:18:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's ass.
00:18:04
Speaker
I hate Bullet Train.
00:18:05
Speaker
But, like...
00:18:08
Speaker
Leech's idea of what is cool is like guys in masks doing unnecessary shit in a fight scene.
00:18:17
Speaker
And Stahelski's view of cool is what if John Wick kills four people with a car and we show it in one take?
00:18:25
Speaker
It's pretty dope.
00:18:27
Speaker
I think I had a special appreciation for one revisiting it.
00:18:31
Speaker
I watched a lot of behind the scenes stuff and just watching their process of creation and also watching the amount of shit that Keanu put himself through, particularly in like the learning how to stunt drive, which was never something he had really had to do before, was pretty phenomenal.
00:18:48
Speaker
And like there's that shot towards the end of
00:18:52
Speaker
when they're like at that the final sort of battle sequence at that sort of bay and like uh wick has to like basically like pull a skid straight into the camera because we're at perspective and the character's going to come through the window right and he did it like they showed kiana do it in like one take like he just fucking knocked it out and stahelski and leech were both like
00:19:17
Speaker
okay, move on.
00:19:18
Speaker
Like we got it.
00:19:19
Speaker
And it's like, that shit to me is so phenomenal.
00:19:22
Speaker
Whereas like, again, you had the shit they're able to do in the next few movies is also incredible, but you just had more stuff.
00:19:30
Speaker
You had more shit available to you because they had more money.
00:19:34
Speaker
They did more in the first movie with the budget that they were given.
00:19:37
Speaker
Then it's like,
00:19:40
Speaker
I mean, they were given a budget to make a small action movie, and they made a big action movie small.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:47
Speaker
Do you know what the budget was?
00:19:48
Speaker
$20 million, I believe.
00:19:51
Speaker
That's insane.
00:19:53
Speaker
I think the budget went as follows.
00:19:54
Speaker
I think it was $20 million to $50 million.
00:19:58
Speaker
$50 million to $75 million, and then $75 million to $100 million.
00:20:01
Speaker
Yeah, the last one is so much more produced than the other.
00:20:04
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah, they're so...
00:20:07
Speaker
It's crazy how much more expensive it just looks.
00:20:11
Speaker
Also, just camera-wise, not even what's happening in the camera, just how the camera looks.
00:20:17
Speaker
I will say that the way one looks is my least favorite.
00:20:21
Speaker
It's the worst-looking John Wick movie.
00:20:23
Speaker
So I was like, I'm going to argue that actually, but the second one is like with, especially like the Buster Keaton on the side of the building.
00:20:31
Speaker
A lot of those choices feel a lot more like graphic novel eat to me.
00:20:36
Speaker
You don't have any of that stuff in the first one.
00:20:38
Speaker
And so I feel like the second one, they decided like, this is taking place in like Gotham and we're just going to stick to that vibe.
00:20:45
Speaker
Well, and also, one of the problems that I have with the first one that I've seen that movie so many times and I kind of noticed it this time because I was trying to look at it more critically, is that they don't hold on cool shots very often.
00:20:58
Speaker
They'll do a cool shot and they'll cut pretty instantly because they're just trying to get through the movie.
00:21:02
Speaker
They got somewhere to be and they don't have time to hold the shot, which is fair because...
00:21:07
Speaker
I feel like when you have a new action franchise, and the only notable name really is Keanu Reeves, I mean, there's a lot of cool people in the first movie, don't get me wrong, but none of them have action movie role.
00:21:20
Speaker
Like Reek?
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:23
Speaker
Greek, Dennis from 30 Rock, Clark Peters.
00:21:26
Speaker
Evan Nash, three-time WCW champion.
00:21:31
Speaker
And also Magic Mike alumnus.
00:21:34
Speaker
Yes.
00:21:35
Speaker
I also have to talk about Kevin Nash for a minute.
00:21:37
Speaker
Kevin Nash is one of the only people in the history of...
00:21:43
Speaker
professional wrestling who was a champion in both WCW and WWF.
00:21:48
Speaker
Kevin Nash was often like part of his whole like gimmick was that he was the seven foot man.
00:21:53
Speaker
Kevin Nash was actually like six foot eight, six foot ten.
00:21:56
Speaker
Kevin Nash
00:21:58
Speaker
is the same age as Magic Johnson.
00:22:00
Speaker
He is also from Michigan.
00:22:02
Speaker
Kevin Nash was his second best high school basketball player in the state of Michigan behind Irvin Johnson.
00:22:09
Speaker
Damn, that's crazy.
00:22:11
Speaker
Irvin Johnson then went on to Michigan State, and Kevin Nash went and played at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
00:22:16
Speaker
But I just like, I've like, as somebody who likes wrestling, like I've known about Kevin Nash for a long time, but I was like, yeah,
00:22:23
Speaker
I was like, fuck Kevin Nash.
00:22:25
Speaker
I forgot about him being in this movie and then I just dug through his IMDB.
00:22:29
Speaker
I feel like there was a specific thing where I learned about him that was pre-Magic Mike.
00:22:32
Speaker
Let me try to find it.
00:22:36
Speaker
God bless you.
00:22:37
Speaker
Because I was not a wrestling kid.
00:22:40
Speaker
While we're talking about awesome people in the first movie, let's go ahead and jump in.
00:22:44
Speaker
Oh, Longest Yard.
00:22:44
Speaker
He was in the Sandler Longest Yard.
00:22:46
Speaker
Sorry.
00:22:47
Speaker
John Leguizamo.
00:22:48
Speaker
John Leguizamo is so fucking awesome in the first two movies.
00:22:51
Speaker
He's so sick.
00:22:52
Speaker
In such a small part.
00:22:54
Speaker
They should have brought him back in the fourth one somehow.
00:22:57
Speaker
He just chews the scenery so well.
00:22:59
Speaker
He's just in the scene being this crooked chop shop owner.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:09
Speaker
Go for it.
00:23:11
Speaker
He's like a high-end mechanic, but he just works also for...
00:23:15
Speaker
these like really crooked Russians and yet also like is involved with the Continental and like takes gold coins for some reason.
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's the form of payment that he accepts.
00:23:31
Speaker
I think it's very funny that these movies just establish that Russians are neither good or evil, but they are involved in some shit.
00:23:38
Speaker
Yeah, always.
00:23:39
Speaker
Always.
00:23:41
Speaker
They're involved.
00:23:43
Speaker
I love... Yeah, go ahead, Red.
00:23:45
Speaker
Oh, I was just going to say, I think Leguizamo also...
00:23:49
Speaker
I think he's got just enough of the energy, and I was glad he showed up for a second too.
00:23:55
Speaker
I'm a little bummed because it means that he doesn't qualify for one of our categories, which we'll get into later.
00:24:00
Speaker
But Leguizamo also is like, he's getting just weird enough and committing just enough to the bit and being just silly enough that it feels like he's a transitional character into how the rest of these movies transition.
00:24:17
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:24:18
Speaker
There was also a moment in one of those special features that I watched on the first disc where it's like, it's the only word Leguizamo gives that they go to everybody in the cast to talk about it and they go to Leguizamo and he's like, yeah, Keanu called me and it sounded fun.
00:24:34
Speaker
and that's literally all he said and i was like fucking a that's the spiritual essence of these movies exactly exactly he just fits perfectly um i want to i want to circle back i said i would argue the fact that the first looks the worst um this is a very hot take i think the third actually looks the worst um i don't like particularly the first like 40 minutes of john wick 3 i don't like the way it looks um
00:24:58
Speaker
I don't like the way the knife fight thing looks.
00:25:02
Speaker
It's really poorly lit to me.
00:25:05
Speaker
I don't understand why that looks that way aesthetically.
00:25:09
Speaker
I think it gets better as the movie goes along, but it's less consistent to me than the first one.
00:25:14
Speaker
The first one, I find the visual palette very consistent and comforting, and I don't find that in Parabellum.
00:25:21
Speaker
Sorry.
00:25:22
Speaker
No, it's okay.
00:25:23
Speaker
That's just me.
00:25:24
Speaker
I love it.
00:25:25
Speaker
I love the movie.
00:25:26
Speaker
Don't get me wrong.
00:25:27
Speaker
And there's stuff in that fight that I like.
00:25:29
Speaker
I don't think that the look... I don't have a problem with the look of the first one.
00:25:32
Speaker
I just think it's somewhat poorly edited.
00:25:35
Speaker
I also think the first one is just the most visually, like... I don't know.
00:25:39
Speaker
Okay, so what I'll get into later, but you need to talk about the first one.
00:25:44
Speaker
as the movies go on, they start doing shit with deep focus that is like Citizen Kane level deep focus shit.
00:25:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:25:53
Speaker
And then the first one is just really normal cinematography.
00:25:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:57
Speaker
That's all I'm saying.
00:25:58
Speaker
No, I understand.
00:25:59
Speaker
I think to me...
00:26:02
Speaker
it harkens back to something that I like.
00:26:04
Speaker
So I admire it.
00:26:05
Speaker
Whereas like, I think they continue to find different angles throughout the rest of them.
00:26:12
Speaker
It just can kind of feel like,
00:26:15
Speaker
a little discombobulated at times
Action and Humor Balance
00:26:17
Speaker
for me.
00:26:17
Speaker
Whereas the first one, because of the simplistic nature of it, it feels very cohesive.
00:26:22
Speaker
Sure.
00:26:23
Speaker
To me.
00:26:23
Speaker
And I don't mind the kind of quick cutting that you're talking about.
00:26:26
Speaker
I love in the later movies when they hold on these sick ass shots because they're able to.
00:26:31
Speaker
But in the first one, like, I don't mind the pace so much because, again, it just feels like a kind of B 80s B movie, like with a little bit more kind of pizzazz.
00:26:42
Speaker
That's what I was saying earlier.
00:26:43
Speaker
With a movie where you're doing a new action franchise that you don't have a lot of people going, ooh, I want to see the next John Wick movie.
00:26:50
Speaker
They're going, what the fuck is John Wick?
00:26:52
Speaker
You can't have a two-hour and 45-minute long action epic.
00:26:56
Speaker
It wouldn't work.
00:26:56
Speaker
It has to be 90 minutes clean.
00:26:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:59
Speaker
And how long is the first one?
00:27:00
Speaker
Is it about 90?
00:27:01
Speaker
It's like 100 minutes.
00:27:01
Speaker
It's 100.
00:27:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's an hour and 40.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah, that's a pretty good length.
00:27:05
Speaker
It's a great length for it.
00:27:06
Speaker
Could have been a little shorter, maybe, but who cares?
00:27:07
Speaker
Yeah, I agree, but still fun.
00:27:10
Speaker
I think I'm in a similar boat as Joe in that I was appalled by Austin's take.
00:27:16
Speaker
That's okay.
00:27:17
Speaker
That's your take.
00:27:18
Speaker
My take.
00:27:19
Speaker
As I think, like, and it's a reminder of, like, a really cool thing that happened is I liked certain movies more.
00:27:29
Speaker
I didn't get to finish John Wick 3 on this rewatch.
00:27:32
Speaker
Um...
00:27:34
Speaker
Because I fell asleep, but I watched most of it.
00:27:36
Speaker
And I liked it more on rewatch than I did in the theater.
00:27:41
Speaker
And I loved it in the theater.
00:27:43
Speaker
And then John Wick Chapter 4, I was like, on rewatch, I was like, holy fuck.
00:27:48
Speaker
It's incredible.
00:27:49
Speaker
I was blown off the screen by it.
00:27:53
Speaker
There's some shots in four that I was like, this is maybe one of the best looking movies of the decade.
00:27:57
Speaker
No, actually.
00:27:58
Speaker
Oh, totally.
00:27:59
Speaker
Genuinely.
00:28:00
Speaker
But then like, but for me, I think the problem of watching everything in quick succession is it was a reminder of like what I feel like John, John Wick, the first film lacks.
00:28:10
Speaker
Which is a hard part of all of this, of like, especially thinking about, and we've already talked about it and talked about the budgets and how they grow, is it's like, as they keep making money, they keep giving them more money and they keep giving them more options.
00:28:22
Speaker
They keep making so much money.
00:28:25
Speaker
And they like, and like, Stahelski and Reeves and the stunt writing teams, which are probably the exact same team, frankly, is they just go, okay, cool.
00:28:39
Speaker
let's take this money and how do we use it in the most economical way possible to like stretch it and do as much cool shit and make as much happen.
00:28:48
Speaker
Whereas other franchises, as they grow, is there certain things that they're like, we have to keep to our roots or yada, yada, yada.
00:28:55
Speaker
Whereas like the roots are Keanu Reeves is going to fucking kill some people.
00:28:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:59
Speaker
Well, back to the way four looks, I know we're jumping all over the place.
00:29:02
Speaker
I don't think we necessarily have to talk to about all these in order because they are just one together essentially.
00:29:08
Speaker
But not only does it look incredible, but it looks incredible in the spots that it doesn't have to.
00:29:13
Speaker
Like the moment in the rain with the umbrellas with the Bowery King and Winston,
00:29:19
Speaker
That should be how a lot of dramatic movies look, but don't.
00:29:25
Speaker
That shot's incredible.
00:29:27
Speaker
The DP from 2 onwards, they got a new DP after the first one.
00:29:33
Speaker
That makes sense.
00:29:34
Speaker
His name is Dan Lauston, Danish cinematographer, who is also Guillermo del Toro's partner.
00:29:44
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:29:45
Speaker
Worked with him on Crimson Peak, Nightmare Alley, and we'll be working with him on Frankenstein.
00:29:49
Speaker
He also shot The Shape of Water.
00:29:51
Speaker
Okay.
00:29:52
Speaker
Really, really one of the better digital cinematographers working right now who uses it to create actually new and interesting looking imagery instead of just trying to make it look like film.
00:30:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:03
Speaker
Which I think is maybe one of the biggest pulls for these movies for me.
00:30:07
Speaker
Besides being an action movie...
00:30:09
Speaker
This is, and despite what Austin has said about chapter three, we can get into that later.
00:30:16
Speaker
I still really like it.
00:30:17
Speaker
I'm not trying to denigrate it.
00:30:18
Speaker
I just don't think it looks the worst.
00:30:19
Speaker
My biggest problem with it is that they tried to shoehorn a tag title into it when none of the other ones have.
00:30:25
Speaker
I love it.
00:30:25
Speaker
I thought I loved it when Ian McShane goes,
00:30:29
Speaker
Parabellum.
00:30:29
Speaker
The camera like zooms in on his face a little bit.
00:30:32
Speaker
I was like, okay, cool.
00:30:33
Speaker
I was doing the fucking Leonardo DiCaprio.
00:30:36
Speaker
It just doesn't really make sense.
00:30:38
Speaker
It's so inconsequential.
00:30:42
Speaker
It does not matter at all.
00:30:44
Speaker
It's like the moment in Romulus where the guy goes, get away from her, you bitch, except for it doesn't make me viscerally angry.
00:30:50
Speaker
I will say too, subtle MVP of all of these movies is the way that they decided to do the subtitling.
00:30:57
Speaker
The subtitling is so good because it's playing into what you were talking about, Zach.
00:31:01
Speaker
And it's in the first one, but it's much more kind of stylized later.
00:31:04
Speaker
But it's like a comic book.
00:31:06
Speaker
It looks like you're reading a comic book from 1978.
00:31:09
Speaker
It's fucking awesome.
00:31:12
Speaker
It's so sick.
00:31:14
Speaker
I love that part so much.
00:31:14
Speaker
I also think that a very sick tattoo from this movie would just be B-C-ing you.
00:31:21
Speaker
Totally.
00:31:24
Speaker
I love John's little catchphrases, one of them being be seeing you and the other one just being yeah.
00:31:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:32
Speaker
I mean, isn't that one of the we want to go into favorite one liners right now?
00:31:37
Speaker
Sure.
00:31:38
Speaker
I'll be honest.
00:31:40
Speaker
Zach stole my favorite one liner from the entire series.
00:31:42
Speaker
Because it was my review for the first one.
00:31:45
Speaker
for the second one for the second one i mean which is what which is we're going to applebee's tonight when the bowery king says that's a lot of money john it's like christmas we're going to applebee's after this i think we could all my favorite character probably besides john wick because he ties in this world that is not the world we live in to the world that we live in in the most nonsensical ways where he's like
00:32:10
Speaker
name he's name dropping like former presidents of the united states yeah he's talking about applebee's like it's incredible i mean my my favorite line is also a bowery king line and it's in john mc3 when he's talking to the adjudicator um and he says well since you she uh she says you had your chance and he said well since you see it that way i guess it's time i told you to climb down off your high table and go fuck yourself
00:32:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:35
Speaker
I was living for that when I watched it again last night.
00:32:38
Speaker
It was fucking phenomenal.
00:32:39
Speaker
I mean, my favorite, it's a classic.
00:32:41
Speaker
It's, it's from number one.
00:32:43
Speaker
It's, you know, all day people have been asking me if I'm back and you know what?
00:32:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:50
Speaker
I'm thinking I'm back.
00:32:52
Speaker
I don't know if Keanu Reeves has delivered a line better than that one ever.
00:32:57
Speaker
I will actually make an argument.
00:32:59
Speaker
I think that his performances get better as these movies go on.
00:33:03
Speaker
And I was going to say, because I think Zach and I have the same favorite line of we're going to Applebee's.
00:33:10
Speaker
I'm going to switch mine when he, when they're talking about the gravestones on the boat in chapter four, when Bowery King is taking him and Winston,
00:33:20
Speaker
and John's about to go and have to get to soccer core.
00:33:24
Speaker
And he tells Bowery King what he wants on his gravestone.
00:33:29
Speaker
He just says, loving husband.
00:33:31
Speaker
is like, I think that is like, that's the moment where you're like, whoa.
00:33:36
Speaker
All his stuff in 3, too, about like when he's talking about wanting to stay alive to remember her, like that's some of the most tender stuff I've ever seen him do.
00:33:45
Speaker
I missed a detail on the second one that I hadn't noticed until today that the reason, or not today, but when I watched it, the reason why he wanted his car back so bad was not the car at all.
00:33:56
Speaker
It was because he had a birthday card from his wife in the glove compartment.
00:33:59
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:34:00
Speaker
Like that was the whole reason.
00:34:01
Speaker
Which is why he's driving it recklessly and taking the doors off.
00:34:04
Speaker
Yeah, he doesn't give a shit about the car.
00:34:05
Speaker
He doesn't fucking care about the car.
00:34:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:09
Speaker
He cared about that dog and his wife.
00:34:11
Speaker
Amen.
00:34:11
Speaker
Pretty much.
00:34:12
Speaker
He shouldn't have killed his dog.
00:34:14
Speaker
Didn't it kill this?
00:34:14
Speaker
But I told, I told red this when we were watching four, like as this is my first time rewatching these movies as a dog owner, especially in the week I had with my dog, my dog got into a little bit of a tough with a different dog this week.
00:34:28
Speaker
And when they fucking killed his dog, I was like almost crying and almost had to like take a lap around the block.
00:34:33
Speaker
yeah i was like don't fucking touch that man's dog i swear to god dude also when they when it goes full circle and four and the that like spanish dude is about to kill uh the tracker's dog and john like just like domes him yeah and it's like uh dude don't do not mess with the dog in front of john wick it's the same it's the same in three when the fucking guy tries to kill hallie berry's dog and he's like don't hit my dog yeah john's like
00:35:00
Speaker
okay, I didn't want to do this, but I get where you're coming from.
00:35:02
Speaker
Yeah, he's like, I'm with you.
00:35:04
Speaker
I can't say no.
00:35:05
Speaker
It's about dogs.
00:35:06
Speaker
And also, I will say, okay, so we should finish our one-liner discussion first before we move on.
00:35:13
Speaker
I would say that my other favorite one is, or line reading from Keanu specifically, is when he's on the noose in 4, and he's trying to get, like...
00:35:25
Speaker
uh, he's trying to get his ticket mended.
00:35:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:28
Speaker
He needs his ticket mended.
00:35:29
Speaker
And he says some shit and I can't remember exactly what he says, but it's like, uh, when she's like, you kill, you kill a target we need and I'll mend your ticket.
00:35:37
Speaker
And John just goes, give me the name.
00:35:41
Speaker
pretty sick it is really good and it's because he's currently being choked by a noose but the gravelly like angry line reading where he's just like i don't want to do this stupid shit yeah i just gotta kill this motherfucker i mean how the part the in the there's another good one-liner in the fourth one where uh it's not even in english but it's just saying like i fucking hate cheaters yeah i think it's no it's like i knew you were a cheating prick yeah yeah
00:36:11
Speaker
I will also say like Commons delivery of when after Gianna D'Antonio kills herself and then John shoots her dead body in the head, which is hilarious.
00:36:24
Speaker
Hilarious.
00:36:25
Speaker
Well, he had to for the bull.
00:36:27
Speaker
You know, there's reasons.
00:36:28
Speaker
It's true.
00:36:28
Speaker
He has his reasons read.
00:36:30
Speaker
But it's just like I had forgotten that he shoots her.
00:36:33
Speaker
He just goes up and domes her again.
00:36:36
Speaker
Which just made me laugh so hard.
00:36:38
Speaker
It was a fucking kill shot too.
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah, he turned the gun sideways.
00:36:42
Speaker
But then he sees Common.
00:36:44
Speaker
And Kaman goes, Cassian, please.
00:36:46
Speaker
Cassian, thank you.
00:36:48
Speaker
Incredible.
00:36:49
Speaker
And he goes, hey, John, you working?
00:36:51
Speaker
You working?
00:36:52
Speaker
And he just goes, yeah.
00:36:54
Speaker
He goes, good night.
00:36:55
Speaker
And then he just goes, unfortunately.
00:36:59
Speaker
It's such a smart way to communicate.
00:37:01
Speaker
It's just one of those mutual respect things.
00:37:03
Speaker
Like every person, most of the, not every person, most of the people he has to fight in these movies, he's like, no, I like that guy.
00:37:10
Speaker
I don't want to fight him.
00:37:11
Speaker
Which is reinforced by them sitting down at the bar and having a drink.
00:37:14
Speaker
Especially when they remember each other's drink order.
00:37:16
Speaker
Yeah, Ries and Common have awesome chemistry in the third movie.
00:37:20
Speaker
And it's because they're both so cardboardy.
00:37:23
Speaker
Yeah, I love when he stabs Cassian on the train and he says, the knife is in your aorta.
00:37:29
Speaker
You pull it out, you will bleed and you will die.
00:37:32
Speaker
Consider this a professional courtesy.
00:37:35
Speaker
It's the repeat from the line from the bar, but I love that line reading in the bar where Common goes, I'll make sure I kill you quick, John.
00:37:44
Speaker
And then he walks away and John turns around and goes, yeah, I'll try to do the same.
00:37:51
Speaker
Your wick is really good, Joe.
00:37:53
Speaker
It's just gravel.
00:37:54
Speaker
It's really good.
00:37:55
Speaker
It's just gravel.
00:37:56
Speaker
It's really good.
00:37:57
Speaker
Just go down and you sit like, you know, like somebody asks you what you want to drink.
00:38:01
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'll have a Coca-Cola.
00:38:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:05
Speaker
I mean, just before we move on.
00:38:07
Speaker
You also have to say yeah before everything.
00:38:08
Speaker
You also have to say yeah.
00:38:10
Speaker
I think I'll have a go.
00:38:11
Speaker
Somebody has to say, somebody get this man a gun.
00:38:17
Speaker
Yeah, I opened the show on it.
00:38:18
Speaker
I know, but I just had to say the full thing.
00:38:20
Speaker
Also, I wanted to make a joke, but we moved on too fast.
00:38:22
Speaker
Somebody get this man a podcast is what you say to a white boy when he says a slur in the
World-Building and Fight Scenes
00:38:27
Speaker
club.
00:38:27
Speaker
Jesus Christ.
00:38:33
Speaker
I don't go to clubs, but if I did, I would not say slurs in them.
00:38:36
Speaker
Yeah, don't do that.
00:38:38
Speaker
Don't do that, especially around John Wickie.
00:38:39
Speaker
I want to know what the people are doing at the clubs that are in this movie.
00:38:43
Speaker
Are they also assassins or are they like blissfully unaware off MDMA?
00:38:48
Speaker
It's the craziest thing to me is that this series of movies basically stipulates that one in every five people you see on the street is an assassin.
00:38:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:59
Speaker
It's insane.
00:39:00
Speaker
The scene when Ian McShane is like, you live because I allow it to be so.
00:39:05
Speaker
And then everybody turns.
00:39:06
Speaker
And everyone turns.
00:39:07
Speaker
And you're like, what the fuck?
00:39:08
Speaker
That's one of my favorite shots in the whole series.
00:39:10
Speaker
It's so cool.
00:39:12
Speaker
Awesome.
00:39:12
Speaker
And it's so simple.
00:39:13
Speaker
It's such a simple little thing.
00:39:15
Speaker
But it's so good.
00:39:16
Speaker
I love it so much.
00:39:18
Speaker
I do love in the, like, so we talk about club scenes and I wanted to also have this conversation of like, there's a club scene in fucking every John Wick and they just get better and better.
00:39:29
Speaker
And the one that's in Berlin, that's basically Berghain, where it's like most, like very few people in there seem to be assassins, but they are definitely just
00:39:42
Speaker
gone off MDMA oh they're blitzed as hell and it's like and it's like they just don't care that this giant fatso is just like this giant fat asthmatic is beating the shit out of John Wick Scott Adkins kicks are one of my favorite moves when a fat guy can do a head kick it's over for me that's the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life
00:40:07
Speaker
It's such a good choice to be like, here's Scott Adkins, who is one of the greatest white martial artists in the history of martial arts.
00:40:19
Speaker
He is like... How does that not look like fat Cristiano Ronaldo?
00:40:26
Speaker
Isn't that crazy?
00:40:27
Speaker
He also looks like he's part of the fucking Fury family, though.
00:40:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point.
00:40:33
Speaker
I mean, he is an English dude.
00:40:35
Speaker
Yeah, he is.
00:40:36
Speaker
But Scott Adkins is genuinely an extremely well-regarded martial artist who then became an actor.
00:40:43
Speaker
And red box movie star.
00:40:45
Speaker
Yes.
00:40:46
Speaker
But is mostly just used in the context of who's a white guy that we need to be able to beat the shit out of somebody using martial arts.
00:40:53
Speaker
And so that's why they got Scott Adkins.
00:40:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:55
Speaker
And they were like, yeah, but what if he made him a fat asthmatic?
00:40:58
Speaker
It's fucking phenomenal.
00:40:59
Speaker
Which is Tom Cruise in fucking Tropic Thunder when he's like, yeah, I want my character to have fat hands.
00:41:06
Speaker
And they're like, what?
00:41:07
Speaker
He goes, no.
00:41:08
Speaker
No, no, no.
00:41:09
Speaker
He has fat hands and he likes to dance.
00:41:12
Speaker
And Vince Miller's like, okay.
00:41:14
Speaker
Did y'all all watch Barry?
00:41:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:18
Speaker
Do you remember Ronnie and Lily, the great episode?
00:41:22
Speaker
Yes.
00:41:22
Speaker
Where he goes to see the cop's ex's new boyfriend.
00:41:28
Speaker
And Barry Hader has always said about that episode, basically the premise of the episode is he goes to kill this guy and then realizes he's a martial arts champion.
00:41:37
Speaker
And actually that actor...
00:41:39
Speaker
is one of Common's like second guys in two.
00:41:43
Speaker
The actor who plays Ronnie in that episode.
00:41:45
Speaker
He's also Bob Odenkirk's trainer.
00:41:46
Speaker
Fun fact.
00:41:47
Speaker
But just a little fun fact.
00:41:49
Speaker
It's a small world, these action movies.
00:41:50
Speaker
They're all interconnected.
00:41:51
Speaker
Exactly.
00:41:52
Speaker
But in that episode, Hayter has always said they initially pictured it as like a really fat guy who was also a martial arts champion.
00:42:00
Speaker
And I'm just glad somebody finally realized his vision in John Wick 4.
00:42:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:04
Speaker
It's fantastic.
00:42:05
Speaker
It's unbelievable.
00:42:06
Speaker
And also, they understand... Of course, Scott Adkins is doing fucking crazy shit, like the head kick and all that kind of stuff, but they also understand in all of these movies how fat guys fight really strong fat guys.
00:42:20
Speaker
You can see so much impact behind a small strike.
00:42:25
Speaker
Yeah, like the sumo wrestler dude in John Wick 2 when John's hitting him and he's just not moving.
00:42:31
Speaker
He just doesn't bother at all.
00:42:32
Speaker
John has to shoot him six times in the stomach for him to feel any pain.
00:42:38
Speaker
it's incredible and it's same with scott adkins in this like they they make it to where like you know john hits him and it's just like nothing he's like it's just he's a giant video game boss like yeah it's fantastic every one of the movies is structured like a video game specifically parabellum like the last the last act of parabellum is he's got he's got the level where he's gonna take out the goons then he has to go fight the two-on-one boss fight and then he has to go fight the main boss yep yes
00:43:04
Speaker
Yeah, dude, it's the raid redemption.
00:43:06
Speaker
No, John Wick 3, Parabellum, the last act is literally the plot of the raid, but if the roles were reversed.
00:43:13
Speaker
Yes.
00:43:14
Speaker
And it has Mad Dog in it who's fucking so sick and healthy, and they reference the kitchen fight.
00:43:20
Speaker
They give him a little knife, and then they square up at the beginning, exactly how they do in the Raid 2 kitchen fight.
00:43:26
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:43:27
Speaker
I do love how, like, vengeance movies are fun, inherently.
00:43:33
Speaker
And, like, speaking of Bob Odenkirk, like, the Nobody movie.
00:43:35
Speaker
I haven't seen them.
00:43:37
Speaker
It's pretty good.
00:43:37
Speaker
Nobody's pretty good.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:39
Speaker
All right.
00:43:39
Speaker
I'll throw it on.
00:43:41
Speaker
I think you'll dig it.
00:43:42
Speaker
I missed it, too.
00:43:43
Speaker
It's just better action than it should be.
00:43:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:45
Speaker
For what the plot is.
00:43:48
Speaker
Fair enough.
00:43:49
Speaker
Should we use the Scott Adkins?
00:43:50
Speaker
Oh, sorry.
00:43:50
Speaker
Go ahead.
00:43:51
Speaker
Oh, I was just going to say, uh...
00:43:53
Speaker
the guy who directed The Night Comes for Us, which is a fucking sick Ego U.I.S.
00:43:57
Speaker
and Joe Taslim movie on Netflix, which if you haven't seen it, I'm pretty surprised.
00:44:02
Speaker
I haven't seen that either.
00:44:03
Speaker
It's fucking awesome.
00:44:04
Speaker
You'll love it.
00:44:05
Speaker
That guy is directing Nobody 2.
00:44:07
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:44:09
Speaker
Which will be pretty fucking sick.
00:44:11
Speaker
I'm excited to see what other directors they bring in for spinoffs and shit.
00:44:15
Speaker
Because I know they have the ballerinas coming up.
00:44:17
Speaker
Which is mostly directed by Stahelski.
00:44:20
Speaker
He came back and fixed it because who they hired wasn't getting it.
00:44:24
Speaker
Well, they hired the guy who directed Underworld, which is sick.
00:44:28
Speaker
Underworld is sick.
00:44:29
Speaker
I will not hear any slander on those two movies.
00:44:32
Speaker
They're very good to me.
00:44:33
Speaker
However, those movies are not like...
00:44:36
Speaker
Those are like American wuxia, like wire work and fucking insane special effects and shit.
00:44:44
Speaker
It's not the grounded.
00:44:47
Speaker
So, but I'm interested to see if Ballerina does well and they bring in other people to like, because I would love to see a movie about the tracker.
00:44:56
Speaker
They set that up.
00:44:57
Speaker
They set it up in the fourth movie.
00:44:58
Speaker
They're like, okay, here's a bunch of new cool characters that you might like.
00:45:00
Speaker
Here's Reena Sawoyama.
00:45:01
Speaker
She's a badass ninja girl.
00:45:04
Speaker
We're going to do a movie about her probably.
00:45:05
Speaker
No, Joe, there is a movie on Letterboxd, and it's just listed as existing on Letterboxd, but obviously doesn't unless it's buried in some special feature somewhere.
00:45:15
Speaker
But it's marketed as a story about Donnie Yen's character and Reena Sawoyama's character.
00:45:21
Speaker
Great.
00:45:22
Speaker
I want it.
00:45:23
Speaker
After the fourth movie.
00:45:24
Speaker
Yeah, I need that.
00:45:26
Speaker
And I saw that on Letterboxd yesterday.
00:45:27
Speaker
I was like, where can I watch this?
00:45:29
Speaker
And does it actually exist?
00:45:30
Speaker
Maybe it's in development.
00:45:32
Speaker
I think they're probably planning it.
00:45:33
Speaker
Letterboxd includes things that are in development.
00:45:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:37
Speaker
I would love to see it.
00:45:39
Speaker
Yeah, specifically because Yin, I mean, is fucking electric in four.
00:45:44
Speaker
Did you see the movie that I sent from Yin that came out in China?
00:45:48
Speaker
The Prosecutor?
00:45:49
Speaker
I want to watch it so bad.
00:45:50
Speaker
He's wearing a powdered wig.
00:45:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's fucking sick.
00:45:53
Speaker
This is a good transition into favorite one movie characters.
00:45:57
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:45:58
Speaker
I mean, Yin has to be up there.
00:46:01
Speaker
Yen is up there.
00:46:03
Speaker
I want to throw... Before we get into the real picks, obviously, I just want to throw in some wild cards.
00:46:08
Speaker
The dude who plays the guy at the Continental that, like, when he's fighting... In the first movie, when he's fighting that girl and, like, he beats her... Clark Peters.
00:46:19
Speaker
Clark Peters, yeah.
00:46:20
Speaker
That dude...
00:46:22
Speaker
gave a wonderful five-minute performance.
00:46:25
Speaker
Oh, he's perfect.
00:46:26
Speaker
Do we want to also talk about some least favorite characters?
00:46:29
Speaker
Oh, sure.
00:46:29
Speaker
Sure, sure.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah, so I really love that guy.
00:46:33
Speaker
And obviously, Willem Dafoe is incredible in the first one.
00:46:36
Speaker
Unbelievable.
00:46:37
Speaker
Unbelievable.
00:46:38
Speaker
It's crazy that he did it.
00:46:38
Speaker
I really only brought that up because I don't really love the adjudicator.
00:46:41
Speaker
No, she's really boring.
00:46:44
Speaker
I like that actor.
00:46:46
Speaker
They were on Billions.
00:46:47
Speaker
Yeah, they're great on Billions.
00:46:49
Speaker
Yeah, and I like them on Billions, but I don't like that character at all.
00:46:53
Speaker
I just think that they weren't given a lot to work with.
00:46:55
Speaker
Yeah, I agree.
00:46:59
Speaker
It's an interesting thing because four is almost three hours long, and yet three feels like it drags way more than four does.
00:47:10
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:47:11
Speaker
It has dips.
00:47:12
Speaker
It's the adjudicator thing.
00:47:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:15
Speaker
I think the adjudicator thing really... Well, and they also replaced the adjudicator character in four with Clancy Thomas.
00:47:23
Speaker
Clancy Brown.
00:47:24
Speaker
Mr. Clancy Brown.
00:47:26
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, he fucking eats that movie alive.
00:47:31
Speaker
Every scene he's in is like, yeah, I mean, I'll just watch him.
00:47:34
Speaker
Well, it's just another great voice thing, too.
00:47:36
Speaker
Like, he shows up and you're just happy he's talking.
00:47:38
Speaker
Because you need to hear that incredible voice.
00:47:41
Speaker
He's great in the Penguin series, too.
00:47:44
Speaker
Oh, yeah, he is.
00:47:46
Speaker
Another cameo that I really loved that was just in one movie was the director or the manager of the Italian Continental, which is Franco Nero.
00:47:53
Speaker
Yeah, he's fantastic.
00:47:54
Speaker
The white Django.
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:57
Speaker
He's great.
00:47:57
Speaker
The white Django.
00:47:58
Speaker
All the continental managers, I mean, in 4, it's... I'm going to get his name, just so I get it right.
00:48:04
Speaker
From Shogun.
00:48:05
Speaker
Hiroyuki Sonata.
00:48:06
Speaker
Hiroyuki Sonata is fantastic.
00:48:09
Speaker
Yeah, he's... Him and Yin's battle at the beginning is like... Terrific stuff.
00:48:13
Speaker
It's fucking fantastic.
00:48:15
Speaker
Hiroyuki Sonata is in the running for my top three favorite one-movie performances because I think it is a...
00:48:26
Speaker
I love that the lore doesn't make any sense, but I love that everyone feels connected.
00:48:31
Speaker
And I love that he is there basically to do a couple of cool stunts, but then also to be this guy who just adds more dressing to the story of John Wick's life.
00:48:45
Speaker
Of these guys who like
00:48:48
Speaker
like who he loves and knows dearly.
00:48:51
Speaker
And like when he has the conversation with Rina Sawayama's character in Japanese and he's like, I've known this man longer than you've been alive.
00:48:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:59
Speaker
Like, like something like that is just, it makes it to where when he sacrifices himself, you're like,
00:49:06
Speaker
It's horrid.
00:49:07
Speaker
Like you feel when also just that shit that like honor and friendship runs deeper than the high table.
00:49:14
Speaker
Like him being like, I don't I don't give a shit about the rules.
00:49:18
Speaker
John is my friend.
00:49:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:20
Speaker
I mean, it's the same with John and Winston, too.
00:49:23
Speaker
I mean, speaking of performances in four that we love, I think Shamir Anderson, the tracker.
00:49:28
Speaker
Oh my God, he's so fucking good.
00:49:31
Speaker
So to push back on that, he's one of my least favorite parts of the movie until the scene where he gets his hand cut, where he makes the choice.
00:49:40
Speaker
Up until then, I actually think his character is really flat and annoying.
00:49:44
Speaker
Well, I think that, to me, it works because of the arc.
00:49:48
Speaker
I kind of have to think about it holistically.
00:49:50
Speaker
I agree with you.
00:49:51
Speaker
When I saw it in theaters, I was like, who's this guy?
00:49:53
Speaker
Like, I don't understand this performance.
00:49:55
Speaker
And then once we kind of break off with him, I really, I really love that.
00:49:58
Speaker
At the end of the movie, I love it when he just kind of mumbles under his breath, like, that's fucking crazy.
00:50:02
Speaker
That's fucking good.
00:50:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's so good.
00:50:04
Speaker
Well, I want to shout out his performance specifically as an action star because a lot of the guest performances can't match Reeves in the scenes.
00:50:12
Speaker
Like, even...
00:50:15
Speaker
I don't want to butcher his name.
00:50:16
Speaker
Even the guy from Shogun.
00:50:18
Speaker
Hiroyuki Sonata.
00:50:20
Speaker
Hiroyuki Sonata?
00:50:21
Speaker
Yep.
00:50:21
Speaker
Hiroyuki Sonata is great in this movie.
00:50:24
Speaker
In the action scenes, he's a little slow, and that's fine.
00:50:27
Speaker
I get it.
00:50:28
Speaker
But the gravitas he lends is... Yeah, it's the acting gravitas that works for him.
00:50:34
Speaker
The Tracker's fight scenes are...
00:50:37
Speaker
like electric he's pretty great think about it as if like his his fighting skills are like he's the same role as winston and yet he can still fight kind exactly no i mean i love he's supposed to be commanders of armies in the sense i love his scenes and specifically i mean like like i said his fight with yen donnie yen i i mean i just can't say enough good things about it an absolute god
00:51:04
Speaker
The choreography, the way he embodies the character, it's not just that it's a blind fight scene.
00:51:12
Speaker
It's that he does it in a way where you go, that is how a blind guy would fight.
00:51:16
Speaker
Well, when he places the little trackers that have the doorbells, it's fucking phenomenal.
00:51:22
Speaker
I had forgotten about that little detail, and we were watching it, and I was like, holy shit, that's so brilliant.
00:51:26
Speaker
And when he shoots a gun, I know it sounds so obvious, he doesn't aim.
00:51:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:32
Speaker
Like that's so obvious when you think about it.
00:51:35
Speaker
But when you're writing and directing that scene and when you're acting in it, it's so hard to remember.
00:51:40
Speaker
Oh, I wouldn't aim down the sights.
00:51:41
Speaker
I can't fucking see.
00:51:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:44
Speaker
It's one of those simple things, but he does it so effectively that it reminds you.
00:51:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:49
Speaker
Joe, you were talking about Hiroyuki Sonata.
00:51:51
Speaker
I told Austin this.
00:51:53
Speaker
Hiroyuki Sonata, Lawrence Fishburne, Keanu Reeves, and Donnie Yen were all born within about a 24-month span of each other.
00:52:00
Speaker
That's so cool.
00:52:01
Speaker
Which is just fucking insane.
00:52:04
Speaker
And they look such different ages.
00:52:06
Speaker
100%.
00:52:08
Speaker
And a lot of that does come down to like...
00:52:11
Speaker
the way that they make Hiroyuki Sonata look so old.
00:52:15
Speaker
Sonata and Fishburne look probably the closest to being in the same.
00:52:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:21
Speaker
Ah, Fishburne.
00:52:23
Speaker
What a god.
00:52:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:25
Speaker
He's the best character in the movies.
00:52:27
Speaker
It's unbelievable.
00:52:29
Speaker
It's unbelievable.
00:52:29
Speaker
I mean, the Bowery King is just next level.
00:52:33
Speaker
I feel like this might get pushed back.
00:52:35
Speaker
Probably my favorite...
00:52:37
Speaker
It's not my favorite, but one of my favorites in the first movie.
00:52:40
Speaker
I think that the, what's her name?
00:52:41
Speaker
Adrian Palicki from Friday Night Lights.
00:52:44
Speaker
It's maybe just because I'm such a Friday Night Lights hoe, but I think she's quite good.
00:52:50
Speaker
She's the one that breaks the Continental Rules.
00:52:51
Speaker
Yeah, the one that breaks the rules.
00:52:52
Speaker
Yeah, she's great.
00:52:53
Speaker
I thought she was perfect for it.
00:52:56
Speaker
I think she's kind of rock.
00:52:58
Speaker
Yeah, the scene's cool.
00:52:58
Speaker
And I think it's nice that she's not like, she's one of the ones where I'm like, yes, of course, Halle Berry is amazing.
00:53:05
Speaker
You know, it's like, but with her, I'm like, okay, this is not a movie star or even like on the caliber of somebody like Common, who is a star in another realm.
00:53:14
Speaker
It's like, this is just a working actor.
00:53:16
Speaker
And I think she shows up in Death
00:53:20
Speaker
In defense of the big star casting too, I love both of them.
00:53:23
Speaker
I love it when they do the nobodies and when they do the big stars.
00:53:25
Speaker
But the thing about them casting big stars in these movies is the same as when they get big stars in the Jackass movies.
00:53:32
Speaker
You're just watching Brad Pitt when he was in Jackass.
00:53:36
Speaker
He fully commits to being a degenerate for his scenes in those movies.
00:53:43
Speaker
In the same way, Halle Berry fucking goes for it.
00:53:47
Speaker
Oh, she really does.
00:53:48
Speaker
She's terrific.
00:53:50
Speaker
She buys into the tone.
00:53:53
Speaker
She doesn't try to act like she's in a movie.
00:53:55
Speaker
She's not.
00:53:56
Speaker
And her physicality is also just absolutely insane.
00:54:00
Speaker
And her repartee with her doggy.
00:54:04
Speaker
What do we think of Angelica Houston?
00:54:06
Speaker
I loved her.
00:54:07
Speaker
Fucking awesome.
00:54:08
Speaker
She's sick.
00:54:09
Speaker
And she's going to be in The Ballerina.
00:54:11
Speaker
Oh, of course.
00:54:12
Speaker
That makes so much sense.
00:54:12
Speaker
Yeah, of course.
00:54:13
Speaker
What is his name?
00:54:15
Speaker
Giardani.
00:54:16
Speaker
Giardani.
00:54:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:17
Speaker
Giardani.
00:54:18
Speaker
What's the last name?
00:54:19
Speaker
It's like Joe Velowski or something.
00:54:20
Speaker
You know what?
00:54:21
Speaker
Fuck it.
00:54:21
Speaker
Let's go to the John Wick wiki.
00:54:23
Speaker
John Wickie.
00:54:23
Speaker
John Wickie.
00:54:25
Speaker
Well, when I first heard his, like, Ruski name, I was like, oh my God, he's a Jojo.
00:54:31
Speaker
But that's a reference that maybe, like, three of our five listeners will get.
00:54:36
Speaker
A majority.
00:54:38
Speaker
Majority.
00:54:38
Speaker
That's a good one.
00:54:41
Speaker
It's a good one.
00:54:48
Speaker
If I'm being honest, my favorite one movie character is Kane.
00:54:51
Speaker
But just I think the one that means the most to me is when I already talked about and it's Boban.
00:54:57
Speaker
Of course.
00:54:58
Speaker
The one that means the most to me is Mad Dog from the red.
00:55:01
Speaker
When I see him on the screen, I'm just like, dude, I love that that guy was just a dude in Indonesia that was so fucking good at Salat that Gareth Evans was like, I gotta put him in a fucking movie.
00:55:13
Speaker
And then from that, he's gotten a ton of roles.
00:55:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:17
Speaker
I do want to give a shout out to Mark Dacascos, who plays Zero in Parabellum.
00:55:22
Speaker
Yes.
00:55:23
Speaker
The bald guy.
00:55:24
Speaker
A good friend of my brother's.
00:55:26
Speaker
Oh, amazing.
00:55:27
Speaker
Baldies unite.
00:55:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:29
Speaker
They've been in, they've been in a bunch of acting classes together because there's a, there's a skit from Andrew Dismukes on weekend update from last night.
00:55:38
Speaker
Oh, I haven't watched any yet.
00:55:40
Speaker
It's so fucking funny.
00:55:41
Speaker
I'm excited to watch it.
00:55:43
Speaker
This is just a quick sidebar.
00:55:44
Speaker
We got to go back to John wick, but just while this is in my head,
00:55:48
Speaker
There's something about SNL that's been happening lately that is objectively good, but also pisses me off.
00:55:55
Speaker
Now that Tim Robinson is famous, they are stealing all of his former bits.
00:56:00
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:56:01
Speaker
And the bald bit is straight up a Tim Robinson bit.
00:56:04
Speaker
There's like a whole fake commercial in last night's episode that's extremely Tim Robinson.
00:56:09
Speaker
But this mux kills it with a bald cap.
00:56:12
Speaker
This mux is a good legacy.
00:56:13
Speaker
He's rubbing lotion on a bald cap.
00:56:14
Speaker
Just looking like what's good about this.
00:56:18
Speaker
Did you guys on one last SNL note, did you guys see that someone asked Bowen Yang who like the sexiest guy in the cast is?
00:56:25
Speaker
And he said Dismukes.
00:56:26
Speaker
Bowen Yang is like, you know, I have a crush on Dismukes and he knows it.
00:56:31
Speaker
I love Bowen.
00:56:32
Speaker
I love Bowen.
00:56:33
Speaker
I have come full circle on Bowen.
00:56:34
Speaker
I used to not like him, but I kind of love him now.
00:56:37
Speaker
I love his podcast.
00:56:38
Speaker
You gotta watch Wicked.
00:56:38
Speaker
His podcast is so funny.
00:56:40
Speaker
He's a great podcaster.
00:56:41
Speaker
He's very good.
00:56:42
Speaker
Yeah, they're so fucking funny.
00:56:44
Speaker
Anyways, Johnny.
00:56:47
Speaker
Back to movies for men.
00:56:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:51
Speaker
I do love that these movies are like, fuck it, John Wick will kill just as many women.
00:56:55
Speaker
Oh, totally.
00:56:59
Speaker
John Wick will shoot a woman in the head and he'll punch her straight in the mouth.
00:57:02
Speaker
It's like... It is... I also...
00:57:06
Speaker
there's a degree of which I love that everybody loves John Wick.
00:57:10
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:57:11
Speaker
That like every person who you get to watch John Wick, if they like an action movie, they're like, yeah, this fucking rules.
00:57:18
Speaker
Dads love John Wick.
00:57:20
Speaker
Conservative dads love John Wick because they're like,
00:57:22
Speaker
I just like that it's rated R and they don't have any titties in it.
00:57:25
Speaker
So when my wife walks in, my wife didn't get mad at me for seeing other people's titties on the internet.
00:57:31
Speaker
I mean, I thought where I thought you were going with that is that everybody in the movies loves John Wick.
00:57:36
Speaker
I do also like that.
00:57:38
Speaker
Yeah, John rules.
00:57:39
Speaker
I mean, it's my favorite part of the Zero moment, like when they're in the Continental and they can't fight.
00:57:44
Speaker
So Zero's like, I'm actually a big fan.
00:57:46
Speaker
Well, no, the most emotional I got in my rewatches was in three when Zero has like sits up after him and John's fight.
00:57:56
Speaker
He's got the sword through his chest and he goes, hey, John.
00:57:59
Speaker
John's like, yeah.
00:58:02
Speaker
Pretty good fight, huh?
00:58:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:06
Speaker
And then he goes, just give me a second, John.
00:58:08
Speaker
I'll catch up to you.
00:58:09
Speaker
And John turns out and goes, no, you won't.
00:58:13
Speaker
And I was like, I got kind of surprisingly emotional because the whole movie sets up like zero is like, I'm a big fan of John.
00:58:20
Speaker
I really want to fight him.
00:58:21
Speaker
I want to fight him on equal terms.
00:58:22
Speaker
I don't want, I don't want trickery.
00:58:24
Speaker
I don't want guns.
00:58:25
Speaker
I don't want any bullshit.
00:58:26
Speaker
Let's just fight.
00:58:27
Speaker
And when they finally fight and he loses, he's like psyched about it.
00:58:30
Speaker
He's like,
00:58:31
Speaker
Yeah, I did it.
00:58:32
Speaker
I fought John Wick.
00:58:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of it's kind of beautiful.
00:58:36
Speaker
It is.
00:58:36
Speaker
I mean, it is.
00:58:37
Speaker
I mean, that's the thing I told I was joking with Maddie because she walked in on four this morning.
00:58:40
Speaker
I was like, I'm sorry.
00:58:42
Speaker
I know that you don't really want to watch this, but I can't change it.
00:58:44
Speaker
I have to finish this before we record.
00:58:46
Speaker
And he's like, OK, that's fine.
00:58:48
Speaker
And she's watching it.
00:58:49
Speaker
And there's a scene where the scene where him and Donnie Yen are walking up the stairs and like they just like they basically team up because I need you to get up those stairs, John.
00:58:58
Speaker
And John's like, OK, OK.
00:59:00
Speaker
I was like, Matty, this is how men show emotions, by the way.
00:59:04
Speaker
Yeah, this is beautiful.
00:59:05
Speaker
They're never going to tell each other that they care about each other, but they are going to say shit like, hey, nice.
00:59:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:13
Speaker
I mean, one of my favorite, I forgot to mention this in favorite lines, but when the deaf girl in 2, when he's like... Ruby Rose.
00:59:23
Speaker
Another great performance, TBH.
00:59:25
Speaker
I don't like her in a lot of stuff.
00:59:27
Speaker
She's great.
00:59:28
Speaker
When she signs to him like, I'll see you soon.
00:59:32
Speaker
And he says, not if I see you first in sign language.
00:59:35
Speaker
And it's like, Keanu doesn't even have to talk.
00:59:37
Speaker
I love it when he talks.
00:59:38
Speaker
He doesn't need to.
00:59:39
Speaker
Sign language works well, too.
00:59:41
Speaker
I mean, I will say another great one-liner is the everything's got a price in Russian.
00:59:46
Speaker
And then John back to him in Russian.
00:59:48
Speaker
Not this one, bitch.
00:59:49
Speaker
Yeah, that one's really good.
00:59:52
Speaker
Do we know how many languages John Wick speaks?
00:59:54
Speaker
Infinite.
00:59:55
Speaker
Yeah, all of them.
00:59:57
Speaker
If there is a language, John speaks it.
00:59:59
Speaker
He speaks Aramaic, even though that's a dead language.
01:00:02
Speaker
Motherfucker, if a fucking Klingon came down to Earth to fight John Wick, he would know how to say hello.
01:00:09
Speaker
He's a big guy.
01:00:10
Speaker
I fucking hate Google AI because Google AI like sometimes like really knows what it's doing.
01:00:15
Speaker
And sometimes it's like truly awful.
01:00:17
Speaker
So I was like, how many languages does John Wick speak?
01:00:20
Speaker
And it was like, at least English.
01:00:22
Speaker
Great.
01:00:23
Speaker
And then it goes, at least English and another language or two, which is a...
01:00:30
Speaker
It's not a sentence.
01:00:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:31
Speaker
It's so cool that we killed five trees so that Google AI could tell you.
01:00:35
Speaker
Some speculate.
01:00:38
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:39
Speaker
Italian or Russian.
01:00:41
Speaker
And he literally speaks them in the fucking movies.
01:00:43
Speaker
Chinese or Japanese.
01:00:44
Speaker
Belarus.
01:00:46
Speaker
Yeah, it's like he straight up speaks Russian multiple times.
01:00:50
Speaker
I mean, for the record, we were watching Conclave last night and all those guys know all the languages that John Wick knows.
01:00:56
Speaker
They all know every fucking language.
01:00:58
Speaker
It's crazy.
01:00:58
Speaker
Another great scene in two when Franco Nero is like, I just have one question, John.
01:01:05
Speaker
He asks him an Italian.
01:01:06
Speaker
Are you here to kill the Pope?
01:01:08
Speaker
John goes, no.
01:01:10
Speaker
He goes, okay, then welcome to the Continental.
01:01:12
Speaker
Which I would have loved.
01:01:15
Speaker
One, it's like, wouldn't you imagine if John was there to kill the Pope that he would have known about it previously?
01:01:22
Speaker
Exactly.
01:01:23
Speaker
That would be on the level.
01:01:25
Speaker
But I guess also it's like the thought is that Santino, everyone knows that Santino has a marker on John and knows that John is there to fulfill the marker.
01:01:36
Speaker
So here's a funny thing.
01:01:39
Speaker
So one and two were written by Kolstad.
01:01:42
Speaker
Yep, Derek Kolstad.
01:01:44
Speaker
And one, the script is fine.
01:01:48
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:48
Speaker
Whatever.
01:01:49
Speaker
It's fun.
01:01:51
Speaker
We love the world building, whatever.
01:01:52
Speaker
It was also changed so much from what he initially wrote.
01:01:56
Speaker
So same thing happened for two because it was so overcomplicated and maybe like, I think it was like, what I heard was like 300 pages long or something.
01:02:04
Speaker
God.
01:02:06
Speaker
uh so i met there's a guy he has a baylor connection his name's um oh fuck hold on a second keanu reeves yeah it's keanu reeves um his name is common yeah uh i'm he is a writer give me y'all talk about something else while i find this
01:02:28
Speaker
You guys watch any good movies lately?
01:02:32
Speaker
I watch these movies called John Wick.
01:02:34
Speaker
Pretty good.
01:02:36
Speaker
Oh, those flicks.
01:02:38
Speaker
The Wick flicks.
01:02:39
Speaker
Can we call this episode Merry Wickmas?
01:02:43
Speaker
I found it.
01:02:43
Speaker
Yeah, Merry Wickmas.
01:02:44
Speaker
That's good.
01:02:45
Speaker
His name's Kyle Ward.
01:02:46
Speaker
He's kind of a...
01:02:50
Speaker
Yeah, doesn't have a lot of big credits, but he wrote Machete Kills.
01:02:54
Speaker
Sick.
01:02:56
Speaker
It sucks.
01:02:59
Speaker
He also wrote the story for Underworld Blood Wars.
01:03:02
Speaker
You know, that means this guy's a huge Elon Musk chill, right?
01:03:06
Speaker
Okay, so...
01:03:10
Speaker
Kyle Ward doesn't have a lot of big credits, but what he does have a lot of credits in is script doctoring.
01:03:18
Speaker
He comes in afterwards and goes, okay, hold on.
01:03:23
Speaker
Let's break this down.
01:03:25
Speaker
He is the reason we have markers
01:03:28
Speaker
Oh.
01:03:29
Speaker
And a couple of other things because he took this massive fantasy world building script and went, okay, let's fix this.
01:03:40
Speaker
And he sort of narrowed it down into the marker thing.
01:03:44
Speaker
And it was like, we can kind of fit all this in, but let's make sure that there's an actual thing that ties the movie together.
01:03:51
Speaker
The markers work really well as a MacGuffin.
01:03:54
Speaker
Yeah.
01:03:55
Speaker
But no, he's a real cool guy.
01:03:57
Speaker
I love that.
01:03:59
Speaker
Very kind.
01:04:00
Speaker
Listened to freshman Joe ask way too many questions and answered them all with kindness.
01:04:05
Speaker
So thank you.
01:04:07
Speaker
Shout out Kyle.
01:04:07
Speaker
God bless him.
01:04:08
Speaker
Lord bless him.
01:04:10
Speaker
Yeah, good for him.
01:04:11
Speaker
I just have to also say he might be a nice guy, but he also let the epitome of the plot of Machete Kills be that Elon Musk literally saves the world.
01:04:22
Speaker
To be fair, back when Machete Kills was coming out, nobody knew Musk was the worst person in the world.
01:04:30
Speaker
That's true.
01:04:32
Speaker
He worked on the worst person in the world?
01:04:35
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:36
Speaker
He was just the guy that did Tesla, which for all we knew was pretty cool.
01:04:41
Speaker
Fair enough.
01:04:42
Speaker
When Tesla was first coming out, I was like, okay, Elon Musk, well, I don't know this guy, but I like electric cars, so yeah, let's shag ass.
01:04:50
Speaker
But as time has progressed, I know that he is actually the worst part of Tesla and the reason why it'll never get bigger than it is.
01:05:00
Speaker
Yeah, he's a complete piece of shit.
01:05:02
Speaker
Let's stick John on Elon Musk.
01:05:06
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:07
Speaker
Richest African-American in the world.
01:05:10
Speaker
I hate him.
01:05:13
Speaker
Do you guys have a favorite kill in a John Wick movie?
01:05:19
Speaker
I wish it was Elon Musk.
01:05:20
Speaker
I wish he fucking double-chapped Elon right in the head.
01:05:24
Speaker
I was going to throw in.
01:05:25
Speaker
There's so many.
01:05:26
Speaker
It's the problem of like, I can't even keep track of them.
01:05:30
Speaker
One of mine is the one I already mentioned where Kane decides not to just use the gun and like triple- I like the book kill in Boban with a book.
01:05:41
Speaker
Yeah, Boban with a book is probably my favorite.
01:05:42
Speaker
When he breaks his neck over the- Oh, that's fucking sick.
01:05:46
Speaker
But when he shoves it in his mouth and then rips it out and you can hear a tooth being pulled.
01:05:51
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:52
Speaker
And Beaumont does a very good job of putting his mouth in a very disfigured way.
01:05:56
Speaker
He's like, it's like, holy shit, that guy's fucked up.
01:06:00
Speaker
It's so good.
01:06:01
Speaker
Wait, what does he do, Austin?
01:06:02
Speaker
Shut the fuck up.
01:06:03
Speaker
No, I'm just curious.
01:06:04
Speaker
Sorry.
01:06:06
Speaker
The noise gate didn't pick it up.
01:06:07
Speaker
We got to run that one back.
01:06:09
Speaker
Sorry.
01:06:10
Speaker
Can I get a little bit more in the headphone?
01:06:11
Speaker
Sorry, we'll do a quick edit pass.
01:06:13
Speaker
My monitors are fucked.
01:06:14
Speaker
I can't hear it in my right ear right now.
01:06:17
Speaker
Baby's got an ear infection.
01:06:19
Speaker
Zach baby has an ear infection.
01:06:23
Speaker
His ears got very bad.
01:06:25
Speaker
The Boban kill is very good.
01:06:29
Speaker
What if we redo all of the John Wick movies, but instead of sounding like he does, John goes, so they go like, are you working, John?
01:06:39
Speaker
Yes.
01:06:40
Speaker
What are we?
01:06:41
Speaker
I am working tonight.
01:06:42
Speaker
What are we working?
01:06:43
Speaker
Unfortunately.
01:06:45
Speaker
Good night, John.
01:06:46
Speaker
Unfortunately.
01:06:48
Speaker
I'm thinking I'm back.
01:06:50
Speaker
Let's just say I'm back.
01:06:56
Speaker
I'm going to put down my marker.
01:06:59
Speaker
No, I don't.
01:07:00
Speaker
Please don't make me do this.
01:07:02
Speaker
Please don't make me do this.
01:07:05
Speaker
Why'd you kill my freaking dog?
01:07:07
Speaker
I have to go see the elder.
01:07:09
Speaker
Another thing I feel for me is when he, it's in the fourth one where he walks the dude through the glass and like the guy falls slowly backwards and then John wakes just through the glass standing over him.
01:07:23
Speaker
Is the horse in 3?
01:07:24
Speaker
The horse's leg.
01:07:26
Speaker
When he ties up the dude and then drags him.
01:07:29
Speaker
Or he's just using a horse's legs the same way you would use a gun.
01:07:33
Speaker
Yeah, when he makes the horse... When you mentioned 80s movies, like 80s action specifically earlier, one of the things that I wanted was...
01:07:46
Speaker
I miss the formal tendencies of 80s action movies, specifically Hong Kong and John Woo shit.
01:07:57
Speaker
The one thing about John Wick I'm missing is I kind of wish that there were some of those.
01:08:00
Speaker
But also, I get that it's really grounded.
01:08:03
Speaker
But there's a shot in Hard Target, which is a John Woo flick with Jean-Claude Van Damme, where he...
01:08:11
Speaker
reveals his leg like it's a gun.
01:08:16
Speaker
So like, you know how like a cowboy with a duster will like reveal his revolver?
01:08:22
Speaker
Van Damme is wearing a duster and he reveals his leg and then uses it to kick a guy's head off of a motorcycle.
01:08:29
Speaker
Dope.
01:08:31
Speaker
So like when you said he uses a horse like a gun, it just reminded me of Hard Target when Jean-Claude Van Damme says, like fucking cocks and loads his leg and then kicks a guy's head smooth off with it.
01:08:45
Speaker
Another great sequence of kills is when our boy gets access to the dragon's breath.
01:08:49
Speaker
Oh my god, dude.
01:08:51
Speaker
It's my favorite sequence in the entire franchise.
01:08:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think it is mine as well.
01:08:55
Speaker
It's fucking... Because the way that it's shot where it slowly backs up and then becomes top... It looks like fucking Hotline Miami.
01:09:04
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:06
Speaker
It's fucking phenomenal.
01:09:07
Speaker
And then he's just shooting people with the... Where do we shoot it?
01:09:12
Speaker
My gun is actually better than yours because it where do we shoot fire?
01:09:17
Speaker
But he's like shooting people with dragon's breath.
01:09:19
Speaker
It's like a top-down fucking isometric arcade game.
01:09:23
Speaker
And like, even the way that the camera still like cranes down at one point to where it's less of this like top-down angle, the camera movement is so fucking sick.
01:09:36
Speaker
It's phenomenal.
01:09:37
Speaker
An entire sequence, which then also leads to what we talked about earlier when he shoots the dude who is going to kill the tracker's dog.
01:09:46
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:46
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:09:47
Speaker
I mean, the camera moves in four are just, I mean, they use that $100 million extremely well.
01:09:55
Speaker
The shot where John is drifting around cars, shooting people out of the doors of his Mustang, and it's in like one take as the camera just follows as John stunt drives while shooting in a wide shot.
01:10:11
Speaker
Dude, he's doing a drive-by with like a lot of... With 700 cars going past him.
01:10:18
Speaker
I would say one of my favorite kills is from the Arc de Triomphe scene where Jon throws a guy into a car, he jumps up into the air, does a flip, and Jon shoots him three times while he's flipping through the air.
01:10:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:10:30
Speaker
Yeah.
01:10:31
Speaker
There's also one on the, in the first movie when he like hits a guy, I think he hits the guy on a motorcycle and he goes up over the top of the car and he shoots him through the roof of the car.
01:10:42
Speaker
Yep.
01:10:43
Speaker
That one is super dope.
01:10:45
Speaker
I mean, speaking of him shooting people through things in the, in the first scene when they're coming into his house and John and the other guy are backed up against the same wall and John ducks.
01:10:55
Speaker
So he gets, so he misses and then shoots him through the wall.
01:10:58
Speaker
It's so good.
01:10:59
Speaker
It's so good.
01:11:00
Speaker
There's a few in that first.
01:11:03
Speaker
I realized too on this rewatch that like that first scene in the house that you're talking about, John doesn't get hit.
01:11:11
Speaker
At all.
Character Analysis and Combat Skills
01:11:13
Speaker
He does not take any damage.
01:11:15
Speaker
Whereas as the movies go on, I think we understand that he takes a lot... He's supposed to take a lot more damage and I think they begin to understand that it's good that he does.
01:11:25
Speaker
But it's like he is indestructible in that first sequence and it just leads to him just getting some fucking gnarly shit done.
01:11:32
Speaker
Which is why it's so sick when he's taking his jacket and vest off before the duel that you just hear they're clinging.
01:11:38
Speaker
They're just like... All the bullets are falling.
01:11:40
Speaker
just falling.
01:11:41
Speaker
Or, yeah, when he gets shot in the chest after he gets the bulletproof clothes for the first time, he gets shot like four times in the chest, and he just, like, hits his chest really hard, and then you just hear bullets clinking to the ground.
01:11:52
Speaker
Oh, it's phenomenal.
01:11:53
Speaker
Also, I love that you... Go ahead.
01:11:55
Speaker
Oh, I was just gonna say, I love that you talked about that first scene, because I think it's actually kind of the perfect introduction to how badass John Wick is, because previously, as these dudes broke into his house, and they beat the shit out of him, and
01:12:08
Speaker
And so then it's like, all right, they're coming back to the house.
01:12:11
Speaker
And he's like, I don't know, dude, we're not doing this bullshit anymore.
01:12:14
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:14
Speaker
John gets caught off guard exactly once.
01:12:17
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:17
Speaker
Yeah.
01:12:18
Speaker
As it's like, and so then it's like, all right, cool.
01:12:22
Speaker
And even then, like him getting caught off guard is it's like,
01:12:26
Speaker
It's it's an interesting thing, storytelling wise and using these sequences to be like, well, John Wick probably could have still fucked those dudes up, but he like intentionally didn't because he just wanted these people to leave him the fuck alone.
01:12:42
Speaker
And so then when they show up and they kill his dog, he's like, all right, I'm killing all of you.
01:12:46
Speaker
All you motherfuckers.
01:12:47
Speaker
Just so rapidly.
01:12:48
Speaker
He says that to Winston.
01:12:50
Speaker
One of my favorite lines is, you tell him, Winston, you tell him whoever it is, whoever comes, I'll kill them.
01:12:57
Speaker
I'll kill them all.
01:12:59
Speaker
And then Winston goes, of course you will.
01:13:02
Speaker
Of course you are.
01:13:03
Speaker
Right before the first Bowery King scene in 2, when he goes to the appearing homeless guy, and he puts him under the thing, and then the guy's like, any quarters?
01:13:14
Speaker
And then he just double taps both the fucking guys.
01:13:17
Speaker
That part is so... That's a great kill.
01:13:19
Speaker
I mean, also, we got to talk about his commitment to the double tap in four when he executes the elder guy and double taps him even though he doesn't need to.
01:13:29
Speaker
He shoots him straight through the dome and then on the way down, he shoots him one more time.
01:13:33
Speaker
That's fantastic.
01:13:37
Speaker
I love the conceit.
01:13:38
Speaker
Sorry.
01:13:39
Speaker
I love the conceit though that when the Bowery King sends him off and he has the seven bullets and you know in your heart that you're like, okay, how long is it going to take for him to get another gun?
01:13:49
Speaker
Yeah.
01:13:50
Speaker
And it's so clever because it sets up the stakes of that so clearly.
01:13:55
Speaker
Like, okay, we know he has seven bullets and then how is he going to get the next gun?
01:13:58
Speaker
And then what's he going to do from there?
01:13:59
Speaker
Whereas like when he has a full arsenal at the end of three –
01:14:03
Speaker
You're like, okay, he's not going to need another gun.
01:14:04
Speaker
So that's one less stink to follow.
01:14:06
Speaker
But I love that setup so much.
01:14:08
Speaker
I also love it when he does, in fact, need another gun.
01:14:12
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:14:12
Speaker
He does.
01:14:13
Speaker
He runs out of ammo and runs back, and he knocks on the door.
01:14:16
Speaker
He's like, Winston!
01:14:17
Speaker
Winston, open up!
01:14:18
Speaker
Or the stairs scene when he runs out of the ammo and just uses the gun and fucking nails it in the head.
01:14:23
Speaker
I was about to say, a lot of times John Wick throws a gun.
01:14:26
Speaker
Halle Berry does it, too.
01:14:28
Speaker
It's fantastic.
01:14:28
Speaker
I was going to say, I noticed on my rewatch this time that there is a visual language that they're using for fight scenes where Jon has moves.
01:14:37
Speaker
Like, if Jon is a video character, he has a set of moves that he uses, and they appear, he, like, acquires them as the movies go on, but he keeps using the ones that he likes, which the one they use in almost every movie is Jon uses someone's own knife against them.
01:14:53
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
01:14:55
Speaker
Jon runs out of bullets and throws it at their head.
01:14:59
Speaker
John runs out of bullets, but he's actually faster at reloading than the other person, so he just wins because he's better than they are.
01:15:08
Speaker
Or John runs out of bullets with main gun, switches to pistol.
01:15:13
Speaker
Y'all have a favorite John Wick reload?
01:15:17
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, speaking of what I just said, it's the one from three where he's in the the continental in Casablanca and him and that guy both run out of ammo at the exact same time and they and they both start reloading immediately.
01:15:30
Speaker
But John is just like a whole second faster than him.
01:15:33
Speaker
I like in 3 too when he basically has to build the gun at the beginning.
01:15:40
Speaker
I like that.
01:15:40
Speaker
It's not really a reload, but I think that's a fun bit of world building thing.
01:15:45
Speaker
How fast he reloads the shotgun.
01:15:48
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say, 3 has really good reload scenes because the one with the shotgun is probably my favorite.
01:15:54
Speaker
And the machine gun at the end, too, when he has the double mag.
01:15:57
Speaker
And so it's so quick because he just pulls it and pushes it back.
01:16:00
Speaker
I love any time he's using a rifle with a full magazine and the way that he ejects it is he swings it super hard and they come flying out of the bottom, out of the receiving or out of the receiver is just awesome.
01:16:18
Speaker
I like that.
01:16:18
Speaker
Christian Hairless here?
01:16:20
Speaker
Yeah, that shit is cool every time.
01:16:22
Speaker
It's cool in heat, and it's cool in fucking triple frontier when Oscar Isaac does it.
01:16:27
Speaker
I will just go ahead and say this now.
01:16:30
Speaker
If you are a pervert, as we all are, because you listen to this podcast,
01:16:37
Speaker
is there is a there's a gentleman who runs a YouTube channel and builds custom firearms and trains celebrities his last name is Taron I can't remember his first name but I know you're talking about it's called Taron tactical and Taron kill him
01:16:53
Speaker
Yeah, I wish.
01:16:53
Speaker
That'd be hilarious.
01:16:54
Speaker
Taron B killing him.
01:16:57
Speaker
And they have a YouTube channel of which you can go.
01:17:00
Speaker
And so Austin Butler has been training with Taron Tactical to play... For an unknown movie.
01:17:07
Speaker
Allegedly, he's playing Christian Herles.
01:17:09
Speaker
Play young Christian Herles.
01:17:11
Speaker
Young slash old Christian Herles.
01:17:13
Speaker
But Keanu was kind of like one of the first people to ever train with him.
01:17:18
Speaker
And he still goes back and trains there.
01:17:21
Speaker
And...
01:17:22
Speaker
Taron now is like Keanu is a competition level shooter.
01:17:26
Speaker
Like he could compete with some of the best shooters in the country in terms of his like pure confidence with a firearm.
01:17:35
Speaker
He's like insane.
01:17:37
Speaker
But I think that's like and I to swing this all the way back around to talking about
01:17:44
Speaker
Cruise and talking about like it would be really fun to get Cruise in one of these movies.
01:17:50
Speaker
Cruise isn't a gun guy.
01:17:51
Speaker
He's not even really a fight guy.
01:17:54
Speaker
Villain Cruise would be fun in that too.
01:17:56
Speaker
Yeah, just like let Tom Cruise be like let him play fucking what's his character from uh uh
01:18:05
Speaker
Jamie Foxx.
01:18:06
Speaker
Fuck.
01:18:06
Speaker
Collateral?
01:18:07
Speaker
Yeah.
01:18:09
Speaker
Let him play Vincent Collateral one more time.
01:18:11
Speaker
Yo, homie, is that my briefcase?
01:18:13
Speaker
Yeah.
01:18:15
Speaker
Is that it's like Keanu is like the consummate professional everyone has ever worked for them has been like, oh, he's amazing.
01:18:22
Speaker
I love him to death.
01:18:23
Speaker
He's like the nicest guy.
01:18:24
Speaker
He's super humble.
01:18:25
Speaker
He bought me a motorcycle.
01:18:26
Speaker
Yeah, he built me a fucking motorcycle.
01:18:28
Speaker
He saved my kids' lives or whatever.
01:18:30
Speaker
But it became this obsession to look the best and have the most confidence.
01:18:40
Speaker
And it's why I also know dudes who are... Zach and I have a close personal friend who every action movie he watches is he counts.
01:18:51
Speaker
And like he counts and he waits and he's like, he's like, that's a standard Glock.
01:18:56
Speaker
That's a 17 plus one.
01:18:57
Speaker
Like he's out of bullets.
01:18:58
Speaker
Like, and it will like kill scenes.
01:19:02
Speaker
Is it's there's a degree of this like commitment and understanding that makes even as somebody who I don't care if John Wick shot 700 rounds out of out of a magazine.
01:19:14
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:15
Speaker
I do like that it's realistic because I want to see him fucking reload because it looks cool.
01:19:20
Speaker
Yeah.
Realism and Training in Action Sequences
01:19:21
Speaker
This is one of the only movie franchises that understands that reloads are just as sexy as the actual action scenes.
01:19:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:28
Speaker
It's like you're having great muzzle flashes, great blood splattered clouds.
01:19:33
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:34
Speaker
I have a buddy who is ex-military and he... Cat's husband?
01:19:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:39
Speaker
Yeah.
01:19:41
Speaker
He watches action movies the same way where he's like, it'll kill him if they're not doing things tactically or they're not like, if they don't know how to actually use their weapons.
01:19:50
Speaker
And John Wick is his favorite franchise because he's like, Keanu every time uses the gun correctly, reloads it correctly and reloads it with enough skill to where I can tell.
01:20:00
Speaker
Yeah.
01:20:01
Speaker
My uncle was a cop for like 55 years and he has this kind of similar thing watching like cop movies or cop shows, but his hang up is always like,
01:20:11
Speaker
oh man the paperwork they're gonna have to do it's like it's so funny that's so sick really kills his buzz because he's just like he loves action movies but uh he like tends to go to like westerns like older stuff or stuff set in the past because he's like if it's a modern conventional cop thing he's like oh man they're gonna be drowning in fucking papers for two weeks
01:20:32
Speaker
And also, though, talking about guns, I really also love Peter Serafinowich as the sommelier in the first one.
01:20:38
Speaker
Oh, my God.
01:20:39
Speaker
He's great.
01:20:39
Speaker
A great, great performance.
01:20:41
Speaker
So fun.
01:20:42
Speaker
Such a clever little tactic.
01:20:44
Speaker
The way he kind of presents, like, the dessert cutlery is so fun.
01:20:49
Speaker
Like, the whole presentation.
01:20:51
Speaker
Yeah, like when John's like, I need something bold and like, he's like, oh, I got perfect.
01:20:56
Speaker
Bold with a big finish.
01:20:58
Speaker
Yeah, bold for the big finish.
01:21:00
Speaker
And he's like, is this a, and then that whole sequence is so good when he's at the tailor too.
01:21:05
Speaker
And the tailor's like, is this a daytime or an evening function?
01:21:10
Speaker
One for day and one for night.
01:21:12
Speaker
And it's like, it's just so, it's so smart.
01:21:15
Speaker
Just like, you know, you're setting in a fancy hotel.
01:21:17
Speaker
So you'd have a Somalia, you'd have a concierge, you'd have like all these people.
01:21:21
Speaker
And so it's like, what is that for assassins?
01:21:24
Speaker
I also like the, is the Somalia in?
01:21:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:21:28
Speaker
She goes, I've never known him not to be.
01:21:31
Speaker
Yeah.
01:21:31
Speaker
I've never known him not to be.
01:21:32
Speaker
Which is the answer to everything.
01:21:33
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
01:21:34
Speaker
Is this person in?
01:21:35
Speaker
Is the manager in?
01:21:36
Speaker
The manager's always in.
01:21:37
Speaker
He doesn't fucking leave.
01:21:38
Speaker
Yeah.
01:21:39
Speaker
I wanted one time for there to be like a snarky, just like one snarky comment, specifically in three, when he's fighting Mad Dog and the other dude from the raid, and he keeps getting thrown through those glass display cases, and he gets thrown through like four in a row, and I wanted him one time to go, will you fucking stop that?
01:21:56
Speaker
Yeah.
01:21:57
Speaker
Because you can tell he's getting annoyed because they do it to him like three times and they try to help him up and he goes, I got it.
01:22:03
Speaker
Yeah.
01:22:05
Speaker
Which is such a good one.
01:22:06
Speaker
It's so good.
01:22:07
Speaker
He does the thing from that, speaking of Tom Cruise again, he does the thing so well that Tom Cruise also does in Mission Impossible.
01:22:14
Speaker
The, I just went through this.
01:22:17
Speaker
I don't want to do another one.
01:22:19
Speaker
They both have a different but equally really funny face that they make whenever something's like,
01:22:25
Speaker
Come on.
01:22:26
Speaker
Yeah.
01:22:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:22:27
Speaker
Like when, when they get turned around in a dead reckoning part one, when they get flipped over in the car and they're trying to drive and you just see the look on Cruz's face and he's like, are you fucking kidding me?
01:22:38
Speaker
Yeah.
01:22:39
Speaker
It's so good.
01:22:40
Speaker
There's so many moments in both of these.
01:22:42
Speaker
No, go for it.
01:22:43
Speaker
Zach.
01:22:44
Speaker
Oh, I just have another line that I really love.
01:22:46
Speaker
Speaking of them always being in the continental and then not when Fishburne just turns to McShane and is like, look at us, a couple of homeless guys, huh?
01:22:54
Speaker
Yeah.
01:22:55
Speaker
Let's hope those folks got to stick together.
01:22:57
Speaker
It's so good.
01:23:00
Speaker
I'm the king, baby.
01:23:02
Speaker
I'm the king.
01:23:03
Speaker
When he says the king is dead, long live the king.
01:23:07
Speaker
Everything out of Fishburne's mouth.
01:23:09
Speaker
Or when he says, you gotta look great to be married or great to be buried.
01:23:14
Speaker
He just says shit that rhymes out of nowhere and you're like, alright, cool.
01:23:18
Speaker
You're like, cool, bro.
01:23:18
Speaker
Go off, I guess.
01:23:19
Speaker
Do you think that like
01:23:21
Speaker
Do you think that they gave him like, hey, here's like 40 things you could say right now, so just kind of pick one?
01:23:26
Speaker
Or are they just like, hey, you got some phrases you want to throw out?
01:23:30
Speaker
He's just having fun.
01:23:32
Speaker
It's got to be like that.
01:23:34
Speaker
I want to ask a logistical question for you guys about the Continental and the high table services.
01:23:39
Speaker
Do you think that them broads get the tattoos and the rockabilly haircuts before they work at the condom?
01:23:45
Speaker
Or it's a requirement.
01:23:46
Speaker
Or is it a requirement afterwards?
01:23:47
Speaker
Upon entry.
01:23:48
Speaker
I think it's afterwards.
01:23:49
Speaker
I think it's the equivalent of when they get branded in the...
01:23:54
Speaker
Russian family.
01:23:55
Speaker
The ballet.
01:23:56
Speaker
They have to go get the worst fucking haircuts you've ever seen in your life.
01:24:01
Speaker
I love that so much as an aesthetic choice.
01:24:02
Speaker
Every single person that works at the Continental or at the high table looks like if you saw them at a bar, they would invite you into their polycule.
01:24:11
Speaker
Hey, we saw you across the bar.
01:24:13
Speaker
We really liked your vibe.
01:24:14
Speaker
We really like your vibe.
01:24:15
Speaker
The operators are such a fun choice, though.
01:24:18
Speaker
This is such a small detail, but it's so fun.
01:24:22
Speaker
But the disc I have for John Wick 4, the menu is just the operator in the Eiffel Tower just doing her DJ thing.
01:24:32
Speaker
Oh, that's sick.
Cultural Impact and Movie Rankings
01:24:33
Speaker
That's rad.
01:24:34
Speaker
When they play the French cover of Paint It Black, I kind of lean forward in my chair a little bit.
01:24:38
Speaker
Yeah, you're like, ooh, fun.
01:24:41
Speaker
I mean, this movie, these movies are just every scene is another reason to lean forward in your chair.
01:24:47
Speaker
Yeah.
01:24:48
Speaker
Yeah.
01:24:49
Speaker
Like, like in the three, in three, when they all, they realize that they're in a knife museum.
01:24:53
Speaker
Yeah.
01:24:54
Speaker
Because they don't know it at first, and then John sees it behind his shoulder, and the other guy sees it behind John's shoulder.
01:25:00
Speaker
They're like, bang!
01:25:01
Speaker
Starts breaking glass and throwing knives at each other.
01:25:05
Speaker
I also like it because in that scene, there's too many knives to throw for them to be consistent with their technique for throwing.
01:25:11
Speaker
So there's some knives that just go wide.
01:25:13
Speaker
They just bounce off.
01:25:15
Speaker
Yeah, that part is good.
01:25:19
Speaker
I might run these movies back again this week.
01:25:24
Speaker
You never get tired of them.
01:25:25
Speaker
New name of the podcast, Paddington Gone Wick.
01:25:31
Speaker
Parabella.
01:25:31
Speaker
Every week we talk about John Wick.
01:25:35
Speaker
One wick minute.
01:25:37
Speaker
Breakdown every minute.
01:25:39
Speaker
At least one of us will watch it.
01:25:41
Speaker
Rewatch one of these movies once per month.
01:25:43
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:25:44
Speaker
Pretty much.
01:25:44
Speaker
Pretty easily.
01:25:45
Speaker
Between my rewatches of Moonstruck, which I can't seem to stop doing.
01:25:50
Speaker
I don't know why.
01:25:51
Speaker
It really draws me in.
01:25:52
Speaker
Maybe because Cher's beautiful?
01:25:53
Speaker
Oh, my God.
01:25:54
Speaker
I just want to look at her all day, every day.
01:25:56
Speaker
What a fucking goddess.
01:25:57
Speaker
You need to watch Comeback to the Badestown.
01:25:59
Speaker
Do you believe in love after love?
01:26:02
Speaker
That was really good, Joe.
01:26:03
Speaker
I didn't expect it.
01:26:05
Speaker
I can hear something inside me say.
01:26:09
Speaker
I also really love Cher's cover of Walking in Memphis.
01:26:12
Speaker
That shit.
01:26:13
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:26:13
Speaker
That shit.
01:26:14
Speaker
It's so funny.
01:26:15
Speaker
Walking in Memphis.
01:26:22
Speaker
Oh, any final John Wick thoughts before we go to everyone's favorite part of this podcast?
01:26:26
Speaker
It's fucking rules, man.
01:26:26
Speaker
I have two fucking mini, man.
01:26:28
Speaker
They're all terrific.
01:26:29
Speaker
I could talk about this movie all day, every day.
01:26:32
Speaker
I think the opening monologue of four, I think it's four, the Bowery King monologue.
01:26:37
Speaker
might be up there with like the opening monologue of michael clayton as like my favorite openings of any movie ever it might be up there with the saint christmas day speech yeah exactly it's like holy shit ever it just and then it just zooms in on john and you get the coldest yeah of all time well we red and i were talking about it too like he's working his left hand like when he's but because he's just trying to like work it like he's like i got my right i gotta work my left
01:27:03
Speaker
I'll just double down on the fact that I genuinely think John Wick 4 is one of the best movies of the 21st century.
01:27:11
Speaker
Actually, before we move on, I'm going to put everyone on the spot.
01:27:16
Speaker
Everyone rank the John Wick films.
01:27:20
Speaker
This feels disrespectful.
01:27:22
Speaker
Well, to speak on that, I'm going to say that I used to have a ranking.
01:27:27
Speaker
I don't think I do anymore after watching them this time.
01:27:29
Speaker
I like them each for such specific and different reasons.
01:27:33
Speaker
Then do you think you have a favorite that you can name?
01:27:36
Speaker
Four.
01:27:38
Speaker
I genuinely, I don't think that I could have it.
01:27:40
Speaker
I think four is the best one.
01:27:43
Speaker
Here's my, yeah, go ahead.
01:27:44
Speaker
It's four, one, two, three.
01:27:48
Speaker
They're 1, 2, 3 are all in the same level.
01:27:49
Speaker
I think mine sport, if I had to gun to my head, it's 4, 2, 1, 3.
01:27:56
Speaker
3 is last?
01:27:57
Speaker
Yeah.
01:27:58
Speaker
Okay.
01:27:59
Speaker
I would go 4, 2, 3, 1.
01:28:01
Speaker
I think I would be the same as Austin.
01:28:02
Speaker
If I had to gun to my head.
01:28:03
Speaker
I would also be the same as Austin.
01:28:05
Speaker
Yeah, 4, 2, 3, 1.
01:28:06
Speaker
I used to have the same ranking as Zach.
01:28:10
Speaker
And then when I rewatched 3 this time, I was like, man, I can't put 3 as last because 3 has probably like 3 out of my 5 favorite fight scenes in the whole franchise.
01:28:21
Speaker
If not for the adjudicator, 3 would be above 2 for me.
01:28:24
Speaker
The story is what takes it down because it does have some of my favorite sequences.
01:28:29
Speaker
The story of 3 is so convoluted, but I will say that I noticed something this time around.
01:28:32
Speaker
They reference Casablanca as a location.
01:28:36
Speaker
But the ending of three is literally the ending of Casablanca.
01:28:39
Speaker
Yes.
01:28:40
Speaker
Because he watches Winston walk off into the sunset with the adjudicator, and then he goes with the Bowery King with the start of a beautiful friendship.
01:28:48
Speaker
I wish they were at Applebee's at the end.
01:28:51
Speaker
Yeah.
01:28:52
Speaker
That would make it a perfect five out of five.
01:28:53
Speaker
There should be an Applebee's at every Continental.
01:28:56
Speaker
Oh, that's a great idea.
01:28:57
Speaker
Like a Chili's to go.
01:28:59
Speaker
I was about to say, they should really have a Chili's to go because I'm much more of a Chili's man myself.
01:29:02
Speaker
Well, same, but come on.
01:29:03
Speaker
Triple tap, more like triple dipper.
01:29:06
Speaker
Oh, baby!
01:29:10
Speaker
John Wick triple dip.
01:29:12
Speaker
I was just going to say, that was cool.
01:29:15
Speaker
I, for a long time, was a John Wick 2 is the best guy, even if you've seen 4 in the theater.
01:29:21
Speaker
Many people are John Wick 2 is the best guys.
01:29:24
Speaker
It's a respectable opinion to hold.
01:29:25
Speaker
I think so.
01:29:26
Speaker
But on rewatch, I'm...
01:29:29
Speaker
I think 4 is a perfect action movie.
01:29:31
Speaker
I bumped it up to a five-star rating on Letterboxd.
01:29:33
Speaker
It's terrific.
01:29:34
Speaker
Which, as I have abandoned the star ratings... Yes.
01:29:39
Speaker
Am I quiet?
01:29:41
Speaker
A little bit.
01:29:42
Speaker
Oh, weird.
01:29:43
Speaker
As I've abandoned the star ratings on Letterboxd, I have... I've been saving the five-star rating for things that I think deserve it, and I felt like on this rewatch that John Wick Chapter 4 deserved it.
01:30:00
Speaker
it really, really worked for me.
01:30:03
Speaker
And it's just a... It's exactly what I wanted of an action epic, and it's almost three hours long.
01:30:09
Speaker
Doesn't feel like it.
01:30:10
Speaker
Can I say something that doesn't need to be said, but it'll stir the pot a little bit?
01:30:15
Speaker
Yeah.
01:30:16
Speaker
Always.
01:30:17
Speaker
I think John Wick 4 is a better movie than Oppenheimer.
01:30:20
Speaker
Okay, no.
01:30:22
Speaker
You don't have to argue with me.
01:30:23
Speaker
I agree with you.
01:30:24
Speaker
I'm not saying that as a joke.
01:30:26
Speaker
I genuinely believe that.
01:30:28
Speaker
It's literally like saying this pistol is better than this apple.
01:30:32
Speaker
It's like, what are you talking about?
01:30:35
Speaker
No, it's not.
01:30:35
Speaker
There's no comparing the two.
01:30:38
Speaker
They have completely different goals on every level.
01:30:40
Speaker
I watched both movies in the last week, and that's how I came out feeling.
01:30:46
Speaker
I respect your feelings.
01:30:48
Speaker
I just think it's- I feel like the fucking Bowery King right now.
01:30:51
Speaker
I feel like it's a dumbass comparison.
01:30:54
Speaker
Somebody get this man a bomb.
01:30:56
Speaker
Oppenheimer's not an action movie.
01:30:59
Speaker
What are you talking about?
01:31:00
Speaker
That was good.
01:31:00
Speaker
Fishburne should have been an Oppenheimer.
01:31:02
Speaker
He should be in every movie.
01:31:04
Speaker
As the Bowery King.
01:31:06
Speaker
As the Bowery King, but it's Harry Truman.
01:31:09
Speaker
Yeah.
01:31:13
Speaker
Get this crybaby scientist out of my office.
01:31:16
Speaker
Does the Bowery King actually name drop Harry Truman?
01:31:19
Speaker
Probably.
01:31:20
Speaker
He probably does.
01:31:22
Speaker
He probably fucking name drops Calvin Coolidge, for all I know.
01:31:26
Speaker
I don't fucking know.
01:31:27
Speaker
I need to rewatch Oppenheimer.
01:31:32
Speaker
I don't even want to acknowledge that comparison because I think it's so silly.
01:31:36
Speaker
That's okay.
01:31:37
Speaker
Oppenheimer is my second favorite movie of 2023, so I don't know.
01:31:42
Speaker
It's fantastic.
01:31:43
Speaker
I think it's my second favorite, too, behind Maestro.
01:31:45
Speaker
Shout out to Maestro.
01:31:46
Speaker
You're a fucking weirdo.
01:31:47
Speaker
Shout out, Maestro.
01:31:50
Speaker
I also think that Maestro is a better movie than Oppenheimer, but... Maestro is a goddamn masterpiece.
01:31:56
Speaker
Maestro is going to age you around.
01:31:58
Speaker
I'm reigning it in!
01:32:00
Speaker
Maestro is pretty darn good.
01:32:03
Speaker
If somebody had left Snoopy in a vestibule on Oppenheimer, it would be better.
01:32:08
Speaker
How do we think Bradley Cooper would perform in a wick movie?
01:32:10
Speaker
Why would you ever encourage someone to leave Snoopy in the vestibule?
01:32:13
Speaker
You're so right.
01:32:13
Speaker
You're so right.
01:32:15
Speaker
We should have less of that.
01:32:16
Speaker
What'd you say, Joe?
01:32:17
Speaker
I'm ending the podcast.
01:32:18
Speaker
I said, how do we think Bradley Cooper would do in a wick movie?
01:32:22
Speaker
Oh, he'd be terrific.
01:32:24
Speaker
But only as his character from The Mule.
01:32:26
Speaker
He has to play like a drug, like an FDA.
01:32:29
Speaker
I think that if we do intense action, right?
01:32:32
Speaker
If we do a crossover between this and Limitless.
01:32:35
Speaker
I was about to say Limitless is the other one.
01:32:37
Speaker
He shows up as like a 90% of his brain genius.
01:32:40
Speaker
Yeah, Bradley Limitless has to fight John Wick.
01:32:42
Speaker
I was thinking like Silver Linings Playbook and like some shit goes down in the Eagles stadium.
01:32:48
Speaker
And he's wearing his trash bag outfit.
01:32:51
Speaker
What awful would the Philly Continental be?
01:32:54
Speaker
Oh, man.
01:32:55
Speaker
Can you imagine?
01:32:56
Speaker
The worst place on Earth.
01:32:57
Speaker
No place has ever smelled worse than the Philly Continental.
01:33:01
Speaker
The Philly Continental has been deconcentrated for like 20 years.
01:33:05
Speaker
They're just drinking fucking Yingling, talking about water.
01:33:09
Speaker
Because all the poles are greased.
01:33:11
Speaker
Yeah.
01:33:13
Speaker
Dude, we got fucking John Wick and Delco.
01:33:16
Speaker
Fuck Philly.
01:33:19
Speaker
I've never been.
01:33:20
Speaker
I have no opinion on it.
01:33:22
Speaker
I like the cheese sticks.
01:33:23
Speaker
Yeah.
01:33:26
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, you are now entering into the Akira Kurosawa High and Low
01:33:30
Speaker
For the uninitiated, this is the part of our show of which each of us talk about the best and worst media that we have consumed in the last week or four days or three days or however long it's been since we recorded last.
01:33:40
Speaker
I think we're going on almost two weeks since we recorded a podcast, but whatever.
01:33:43
Speaker
Oopsies.
01:33:45
Speaker
Oopsies.
01:33:46
Speaker
Turns out the holidays.
01:33:47
Speaker
Lots of shit going on.
01:33:48
Speaker
What's going on?
01:33:49
Speaker
Turns out we got shit to do.
01:33:52
Speaker
And I would love to hear from one Joe Neal Hayes.
01:33:56
Speaker
All right.
01:33:58
Speaker
You can hear from me if you want.
01:34:01
Speaker
All right.
01:34:02
Speaker
You can hear from me.
01:34:04
Speaker
All right.
01:34:04
Speaker
I'll start with my low, because I don't know.
01:34:08
Speaker
I don't know.
01:34:10
Speaker
I haven't had a... I've really only been watching the John Wick movies, so I haven't had a real big low yet.
01:34:18
Speaker
Yeah.
01:34:23
Speaker
I don't know.
01:34:23
Speaker
I'll just say... I would say I don't really have a low this week.
01:34:27
Speaker
I just haven't watched anything bad or really listened to anything bad.
01:34:30
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know.
01:34:35
Speaker
I just think I have a low.
01:34:36
Speaker
That's what I'll say.
01:34:37
Speaker
Perfect.
01:34:39
Speaker
But my high, I got an honorable mention and then a high.
01:34:43
Speaker
My honorable mention is Paul Blart Mall Cop.
01:34:47
Speaker
A five-star masterpiece from the man himself, Kevin James.
01:34:52
Speaker
He didn't direct it.
01:34:54
Speaker
What?
01:34:55
Speaker
No, but he wrote it.
01:34:56
Speaker
He did write it.
01:34:57
Speaker
He did write it.
01:34:59
Speaker
Produced by Adam Sandler.
01:35:00
Speaker
It's directed by Steve Carr, who is also behind segments of the movie 43, Daddy Daycare.
01:35:07
Speaker
Bad.
01:35:08
Speaker
Well, fine.
01:35:10
Speaker
Next Friday?
01:35:11
Speaker
Nope.
01:35:12
Speaker
Fine.
01:35:13
Speaker
Are We Done Yet?
01:35:14
Speaker
The sequel to Are We Done Yet?
01:35:16
Speaker
Terrible.
01:35:17
Speaker
One of the worst movies ever made.
01:35:18
Speaker
And Dr. Doolittle 2.
01:35:20
Speaker
Jesus Christ.
01:35:21
Speaker
I think you mean Dr. Doolittle.
01:35:23
Speaker
Yeah, Dr. Doolittle.
01:35:24
Speaker
Executive producer of Santa Baby.
01:35:28
Speaker
I don't want to keep hearing Steve Carr's resume.
01:35:30
Speaker
I'm sorry.
01:35:30
Speaker
I hate to break it to you.
01:35:31
Speaker
Joe, is this the first time you watch Paul Blart Mall Club?
01:35:34
Speaker
No, I just forgot to click the rewatch button on Letterboxd.
01:35:40
Speaker
I've seen it a bajillion times.
01:35:42
Speaker
I love this movie.
01:35:43
Speaker
I've loved it since the first time I watched it.
01:35:46
Speaker
But on rewatch, I just think this movie is so much better now than it was when it came out, simply because of the fact that...
01:35:56
Speaker
it's not a Ryan Reynolds movie.
01:35:58
Speaker
And let me explain.
01:35:59
Speaker
There's no tongue in cheekness to house to the movie.
01:36:05
Speaker
It's not a movie that takes itself seriously, but it doesn't take itself seriously in the same way that John Wick doesn't take itself seriously, which is all of these choices are silly, but we're treating them with respect.
01:36:18
Speaker
And I realize that's a crazy thing to say about Paul Blart Mall Cop, but it's true.
01:36:22
Speaker
If this were a Ryan Reynolds movie, it would be just tongue in cheek, winking to the camera bullshit.
01:36:29
Speaker
But what it actually is, is a movie about a man who loves his family more than anything.
01:36:36
Speaker
And all he wants to do is be a hero one time.
01:36:41
Speaker
And I think it's a genuinely sweet movie with a beating heart, which is Kevin James playing the shit out of Paul Blart Mall Cop.
01:36:50
Speaker
He's giving it 100% earnestly, and I think the movie rules.
01:36:54
Speaker
You know who agrees with me?
01:36:55
Speaker
Roger fucking Ebert.
01:36:56
Speaker
So put that in your sandwich and eat it.
01:36:59
Speaker
I'm pretty sure he was senile by the time that came out.
01:37:01
Speaker
Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars, bitch.
01:37:07
Speaker
You can look it the fuck up.
01:37:10
Speaker
What do you think, Zach?
01:37:12
Speaker
It's a lot of fun because all it is is police story and die hard with a fat American guy.
01:37:19
Speaker
It is not a five-star masterpiece.
01:37:20
Speaker
I remember liking it.
01:37:23
Speaker
Why'd you only give it three stars on Letterboxd then?
01:37:25
Speaker
Me?
01:37:26
Speaker
Yeah.
01:37:27
Speaker
Oh, I changed it to be the heart.
01:37:30
Speaker
I rated it three stars the last time I watched it.
01:37:32
Speaker
I was trying to be objective.
01:37:33
Speaker
I was trying to get old stars to go away on Letterboxd.
01:37:36
Speaker
It's one of my primary Letterboxd gripes.
01:37:40
Speaker
But my actual high was Dark Waters by Todd Haynes.
01:37:44
Speaker
Oh, fuck yeah.
01:37:45
Speaker
Talk about a movie.
01:37:47
Speaker
I have realized as I'm growing up that I think legal thrillers are fucking amazing.
01:37:51
Speaker
Every time I watch a good legal thriller, I'm like, that's the movie.
01:37:54
Speaker
Fuck.
01:37:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's the movie.
01:37:56
Speaker
Ruffalo's performance in this movie is on another fucking level.
01:37:59
Speaker
So is Bill Camp.
01:38:01
Speaker
Yeah.
01:38:01
Speaker
And with the eyebrows, who's the Robbins, Tim Robbins.
01:38:05
Speaker
That's something I couldn't get lift gal out of my head, but it's Tim Robbins.
01:38:10
Speaker
Yeah, Anne Hathaway in this movie is fucking brilliant.
01:38:13
Speaker
It's a great movie.
01:38:15
Speaker
Any movie that can do a drama legal thriller shot the exact same way as The Ring will work for me.
01:38:25
Speaker
I think it's great.
01:38:26
Speaker
I think it is criminally underrated, criminally underseen.
01:38:29
Speaker
Todd Haynes is one of the best directors alive.
01:38:32
Speaker
Yeah, he's one of the best working directors, just hands down.
01:38:35
Speaker
Go watch Dark Waters if you haven't.
01:38:37
Speaker
I highly recommend it.
01:38:38
Speaker
Love it.
01:38:39
Speaker
I would like to hear from Austin Ingalls.
01:38:43
Speaker
I would love to talk.
01:38:45
Speaker
My low.
01:38:46
Speaker
Let's see.
01:38:47
Speaker
I'm going to do two.
01:38:49
Speaker
My real low is the current season of shrinking on Apple TV.
01:38:56
Speaker
It's fine.
01:38:57
Speaker
It's just like I'm just so bored with all the shtick.
01:39:01
Speaker
Like, I love Harrison Ford, which is what keeps me coming back.
01:39:04
Speaker
He's so fun and funny and clearly having the time of his life being in like a comedy TV show at his age, which I love to watch.
01:39:14
Speaker
Is it Colby Smothers in it?
01:39:16
Speaker
She just showed up and she's interesting.
01:39:18
Speaker
She just showed up in the most recent episode.
01:39:20
Speaker
And so I'm going to stick around for her because I love her.
01:39:23
Speaker
That's a fun reunion.
01:39:24
Speaker
It's very fun reunion from how I met your mother.
01:39:27
Speaker
But I don't know.
01:39:28
Speaker
I'm just kind of over it.
01:39:30
Speaker
But it's still.
01:39:31
Speaker
I just realized I said smothers, not smolders.
01:39:34
Speaker
There was a Freudian slip.
01:39:36
Speaker
He wants Colby to smother him.
01:39:38
Speaker
That's fine with me.
01:39:39
Speaker
Come on, baby.
01:39:40
Speaker
She was a big crush of mine when How Much Your Mother Was On.
01:39:44
Speaker
But it's fine.
01:39:46
Speaker
My other low, and it's not really a low, it's just more of a disappointment, was The Piano Lesson on Netflix, which is a movie I thought was okay.
01:39:53
Speaker
Malcolm Washington's adaptation of August Wilson starring his brother, John David Washington, and Daniel Deadweiler.
01:40:01
Speaker
It's just...
01:40:02
Speaker
There's some really good stuff in it.
01:40:03
Speaker
There's some really good horror stuff in it.
01:40:07
Speaker
It's very ghosty in a kind of a fun way.
01:40:10
Speaker
There's a really great seance scene.
01:40:14
Speaker
But overall, I just found it kind of inert.
01:40:17
Speaker
There's stuff to recommend about it.
01:40:18
Speaker
I would still say watch it.
01:40:21
Speaker
Particularly because I think the play that it's based on is an absolute masterpiece.
01:40:26
Speaker
And so you still get to hear that dialogue spoken by really great actors.
01:40:30
Speaker
But the...
01:40:31
Speaker
It's hard turning a play into a movie and making it really good.
01:40:35
Speaker
That is true.
01:40:36
Speaker
It's a hard mission.
01:40:37
Speaker
I just found it kind of disappointing.
01:40:39
Speaker
My honorable mention, High, is another Netflix movie, Jean-Colet Serra's Carry On, which I just watched yesterday, which is a fucking blast and a half.
01:40:50
Speaker
It's like it's Colette Sarah doing his fucking dirty work.
01:40:54
Speaker
Taron Edgerton giving a really interesting, nuanced performance as a TSA worker who gets.
01:41:05
Speaker
Basically, he's on like the.
01:41:09
Speaker
the machine that looks through carry-on bags and he gets a message from a person in the airport that says a bag is about to come through there you need to make sure that bag gets through or everyone you love dies um and that guy is played by jason bateman and so a large chunk a large chunk of this movie is just listening to evil jason bateman in an earpiece and
01:41:34
Speaker
in Taron Egerton's ear.
01:41:35
Speaker
And it's so riveting.
01:41:38
Speaker
Like that one's on my list for watching soon.
01:41:41
Speaker
Yeah.
01:41:41
Speaker
They haven't, they have incredible chemistry, really good supporting cast.
01:41:45
Speaker
What's his name who played Hank on breaking bad.
01:41:48
Speaker
He's really good in it.
01:41:50
Speaker
um he plays no what dean morris dean morris he plays hank azaria um dean morris he plays uh he plays like the tsa boss um just really really solid thriller my real high i won't belabor it is uh alfred hitchcock strangers on a train based on patricia highsmith novel which is just so like
01:42:15
Speaker
beautifully shot really good script based on that novel um i think like raymond chandler did a pass on the script um for this flick it's just like super tight um super fucking homoerotic and fun um really good time it's on the criterion channel and they're like hitchcock for the holidays series so i'm gonna stop talking now but those are those are mine and i would like to hear from red
01:42:44
Speaker
I forgot that I had a low until we started talking.
01:42:48
Speaker
I was thinking like, because I haven't watched a ton.
01:42:50
Speaker
I've mostly been watching John Wick.
01:42:52
Speaker
I was out of town this weekend and have been very busy with work.
01:42:57
Speaker
So John Wick chapter four is going to be my high.
01:42:59
Speaker
It's a perfect movie.
01:43:00
Speaker
It's not better than Oppenheimer, but it's pretty goddamn good.
01:43:05
Speaker
My low is, and this is going to be a bit of a hot take.
01:43:09
Speaker
I hate the New York Yankees.
01:43:11
Speaker
I hate the New York Yankees a ton.
01:43:16
Speaker
However, I don't need to see another documentary about the 2004 ALCS.
01:43:26
Speaker
Why do we have another documentary that's on Netflix right now?
01:43:32
Speaker
I'm generally over Netflix-style documentaries in general.
01:43:35
Speaker
There's a specific flavor, and they're not very interesting.
01:43:39
Speaker
So while I was on this quail and chukar hunt this weekend, one of the first night that everyone gets there, we were going to go hunt the next morning, a group of dudes gathered on the couch and they'd fired up the Netflix documentary about...
01:43:56
Speaker
the Sox beating the Yankees in the ALCS, which is like a legendary thing because they were down 3-0, yada, yada, yada.
01:44:04
Speaker
There's already a great 30 for 30 that Bill Simmons is heavily involved in.
01:44:08
Speaker
That's called four falls in October.
01:44:11
Speaker
It's perfect.
01:44:11
Speaker
It's great.
01:44:13
Speaker
I love the Boston Red Sox.
01:44:14
Speaker
I don't love the Boston Red Sox.
01:44:15
Speaker
Sorry.
01:44:16
Speaker
I love specifically that era of Boston Red Sox.
01:44:21
Speaker
I love this story.
01:44:23
Speaker
I love watching the Yankees lose.
01:44:24
Speaker
I love that Juan Soto is not a Yankee anymore.
01:44:27
Speaker
That was another honorable mention high was Juan Soto going to the Mets, even though I hate the Mets, but I love that he's not a Yankee anymore.
01:44:34
Speaker
I don't have opinions on the Mets.
01:44:37
Speaker
I mean, they're division rivals, so I fucking hate them.
01:44:40
Speaker
Yeah.
01:44:42
Speaker
But it's we're done.
01:44:43
Speaker
We don't need to do this anymore.
01:44:45
Speaker
And Zach, you're right.
01:44:46
Speaker
Like Netflix style documentaries, most of them even like and the problem with so many of them right now is especially their sports docs is they're doing them on subjects I love and I care about a lot.
01:44:57
Speaker
And so I watch these documentaries that are not very good.
01:45:01
Speaker
And they all feel the exact same kind of shit canned, like, just the same thing over and over and over.
01:45:07
Speaker
Like the Redeem Team doc.
01:45:09
Speaker
It's such a plug-and-play template.
01:45:11
Speaker
It's a plug-and-play template, whereas it's like, I loved the Redeem Team doc, but the filmmaking is like, who cares?
01:45:20
Speaker
Yeah.
01:45:22
Speaker
Whereas the 30 for 30 guys really understood it.
01:45:24
Speaker
The more you see stuff like Lenny Cook and Hoop Dreams, the more you're like, oh, there's a lot of bad sports docs.
01:45:31
Speaker
You have somebody like John Boyes making stuff where you're just like, he is the voice of the modern sports doc in a real way.
01:45:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's like and the problem is that it's like I find it really interesting to talk about like the Theo Epstein era of the Boston Red Sox.
01:45:51
Speaker
Super interesting.
01:45:52
Speaker
They were the first team to like really successfully do moneyball to the point of winning.
01:45:55
Speaker
It's very funny that you you've been talking for about seven minutes and Joe just his head went up at Epstein.
01:46:02
Speaker
Sorry, I just had to make that joke.
01:46:06
Speaker
I'm sorry.
01:46:06
Speaker
I'm sorry to interrupt you, Red.
01:46:07
Speaker
That was really rude.
01:46:08
Speaker
No, it's okay.
01:46:09
Speaker
I've been talking about sports for so long.
01:46:10
Speaker
I've been talking about sports for not football.
01:46:13
Speaker
I couldn't avoid that joke.
01:46:16
Speaker
I wish I cared.
01:46:18
Speaker
I have a comment to say about documentaries after you finish talking, though.
01:46:21
Speaker
So all that to say is that the Netflix plug-and-play style of sports, it's especially...
01:46:28
Speaker
their sports documentaries right now just is so boring.
01:46:33
Speaker
And that's, and that's frustrating.
01:46:37
Speaker
Yeah.
01:46:38
Speaker
Yeah.
01:46:39
Speaker
So the fuck you, uh, the, uh, the Netflix documentaries, there was actually a really interesting video that just got put up by drew good.
01:46:47
Speaker
And the vine guy who did the road work ahead.
01:46:50
Speaker
He's, he's, he's, uh, since leveled up his content creation skills, he made a video called why is everything trying to waste my time?
01:46:59
Speaker
And the video break goes into how every single Netflix documentary is three episodes now when it could be one movie.
01:47:06
Speaker
And how basically all of them are this plug and play useless information bullshit where you like, like he specifically he references the Casey Hotel documentary where they interview the person who found the body, the person, the manager working that night, and also three guys that run a Facebook group.
01:47:26
Speaker
So it's like, why are these people in the movie and why is this not an hour long?
01:47:31
Speaker
Why is it three hours long?
01:47:33
Speaker
So, yeah, I just like I Netflix is algorithm based.
01:47:37
Speaker
Like, I'm sure that the people who make these movies are are talented.
01:47:40
Speaker
It takes talent to make a documentary in the first place.
01:47:44
Speaker
However, I'm sure that the Netflix like.
01:47:47
Speaker
executive like requirements for these movies it's like it has to be 360 minute episodes the first episode has oh it's coco melon science dude yeah it's it's exactly it's it's can you watch it while you're on your phone is it is it just long enough to keep you engaged to get another month of netflix
01:48:06
Speaker
Like, cause they know it's probably going to take you, um, like it's probably going to take you a month to get through a 11 episode hour long, uh, season of something.
01:48:18
Speaker
If you're not going to binge it, it's probably going to take you about a month.
01:48:20
Speaker
So we need it to be this long.
01:48:21
Speaker
We need you to be able to, uh, not pay attention to it.
01:48:24
Speaker
And it also needs to look like absolute dog shit.
01:48:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:48:28
Speaker
Yeah.
01:48:29
Speaker
Zach, what are your high and lows?
01:48:31
Speaker
So I'm not doing this just to be funny.
01:48:33
Speaker
My low of the week was Paul Blart.
01:48:35
Speaker
That's not a slight added of the slate of movies I watched.
01:48:40
Speaker
Yeah, it is fun enough.
01:48:42
Speaker
There's some really funny bits in it.
01:48:47
Speaker
I will give it...
01:48:50
Speaker
I'll give an honorable mention to my Thelma and Louise rewatch.
01:48:54
Speaker
I love that movie a lot.
01:48:55
Speaker
Yeah.
01:48:56
Speaker
Rules.
01:48:57
Speaker
But my favorite, my high of the week was also a Hitchcock movie, Austin.
01:49:02
Speaker
It was Saboteur from 1942 with Robert Cummings.
01:49:07
Speaker
This movie is kind of like...
01:49:11
Speaker
It's very similar to North by Northwest in many ways where you have a cross country chase sequence that ends at a famous national monument in the United States.
01:49:22
Speaker
But I just it's a very charming movie with some genuinely funny stuff.
01:49:27
Speaker
And one of my favorite things is when you watch an 80 year old movie that like is making you laugh unironically.
01:49:33
Speaker
Yeah.
01:49:33
Speaker
It's just like, oh, this is just genuine sauce.
01:49:36
Speaker
And there's a character in the movie that's just an old blind man that is extremely ACAB.
01:49:43
Speaker
And I love when Hitchcock is doing ACAB stuff because he had a genuine problem where he was 10 years old and his dad had a cop lock him up for 15 minutes.
01:49:58
Speaker
And so that's why the rest of his career is saying, there's nothing scarier than a cop that thinks you did something wrong.
01:50:06
Speaker
I love that.
01:50:07
Speaker
So I love that angle of it while he's also just doing that like, I don't know, there's an era of like populism in movies that's kind of fun where everyone's kind of bucking against the man but also teaming up against foreign forces.
01:50:22
Speaker
Yeah.
01:50:24
Speaker
This movie is a Nazi plot movie against the United States, which is funny because I guess it originally was supposed to be a mob conspiracy.
01:50:34
Speaker
Which would not have worked with the premise of this movie because why would the mob be burning down American airplane factories?
01:50:45
Speaker
Who gives you shit?
01:50:47
Speaker
Because they want those factories to look like a big spicy meatball.
01:50:53
Speaker
Be careful.
01:50:54
Speaker
Italians are out these days and they're out for blood.
01:50:56
Speaker
Hey, come on.
01:50:57
Speaker
Bring it on.
01:50:58
Speaker
Luigi's going to shoot you in the back of the gut.
01:51:01
Speaker
I welcome it I welcome Luigi another I will mention is the SNL cold open last night they do a Nancy Grace segment where they're just profiling Luigi Mangione oh shit I'm gonna go watch it right now I can't wait to watch it they tore the line I think perfectly for like a mass audience how was rock was rock pretty good
01:51:24
Speaker
Rock was the worst part of the episode by far.
01:51:30
Speaker
His monologue had some good beats, but they brought in Sandler in the episode, and that juxtaposition kind of elevated how much Rock wasn't working.
01:51:43
Speaker
Yeah.
01:51:44
Speaker
As an actor.
01:51:44
Speaker
Sandler was working.
01:51:45
Speaker
Yeah.
01:51:46
Speaker
Cause Sandler shows up and he completely derails the skit and it's funnier than anything else you've seen thus far.
01:51:52
Speaker
It just sounds like what Sandler does these days.
01:51:54
Speaker
He shows up and derails it.
01:51:55
Speaker
He's like a Hawaiian shirt on underneath his like fake skin that he's supposed to be under surgery in an operating room.
01:52:01
Speaker
That's phenomenal.
01:52:05
Speaker
that's it's a little he has no last thing and we're done no no no this whole bit is that he's just laying on the or table and he's bleeding out but the blood hose is like under his control and he just starts spraying motherfuckers in the face then he turns to chris rock he's like the bit can be over as soon as you open your mouth and let me spray this blood in your mouth
01:52:27
Speaker
Holy shit, dude.
01:52:30
Speaker
Dude, Sam was a special guy.
01:52:33
Speaker
I love him so much.
01:52:34
Speaker
Oh my god.
01:52:35
Speaker
Sandman forever.
01:52:37
Speaker
For real.
01:52:37
Speaker
Sandman forever.
01:52:39
Speaker
John Wick forever.
01:52:40
Speaker
PGW forever.
01:52:44
Speaker
Listener, thank you.
01:52:45
Speaker
So, Joe, please.
01:52:50
Speaker
I'll keep this shit going however long I want it to go.
01:52:53
Speaker
Joe, you've been on your phone for 10 minutes.
01:52:58
Speaker
Joe, I also control when the recording ends.
01:53:01
Speaker
I can just end it right now.
01:53:02
Speaker
I'll record my own segment when I'm editing you piece of shit.
01:53:05
Speaker
I just won't upload it.
01:53:09
Speaker
Listener, thank you for listening to Paddington Godwild.
01:53:10
Speaker
We love you.
01:53:11
Speaker
We love John Wick.
01:53:12
Speaker
I love you boys.
01:53:13
Speaker
Bye.
01:53:14
Speaker
Merry Christmas.
01:53:14
Speaker
We love you.
01:53:15
Speaker
Bye.
01:53:15
Speaker
Merry Christmas.