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179 - Commando (1985) w/ Movies for Life
59 Plays7 months ago
For the first time ever, we’re doing a sequel to one of our favorite theme months! Behold, ARNIE APRIL 2: AUSTRIAN BOOGALOO! And who better to help us kick the whole thing off than our friends Brian Keiper and Michele Eggen from the Movies for Life podcast! Join us for a conversation covering everything from modern Arnie analogies to the crystallization of Arnie‘s action persona to… [checks notes] …a rundown of the career of Tom Cruise?!?
Check out Brian and Michele and all their endeavors in the following places across the web:
- @movielifepod on Instagram and Xitter!
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- Find Michele's social media at @micheleeggen on Instagram!
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Transcript
00:00:10
Speaker
you
Introduction and Guest Appearance
00:00:22
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the disenfranchised podcast. We're that podcast all about those franchises of one, those films that fancy themselves full fledged franchises before falling flat on their face after the first film. I am your host, Stephen Foxworthy, flying solo this week. My co-hosts have elected to stay at home. Why? They heard we were talking about John Matrix and frankly, they're smart. But joining me instead, in their stead,
00:00:55
Speaker
Two of my very good friends are very good friends from the Movies for Life podcast. If you don't listen to their podcast, shame on you, but you probably remember them from our Bubba Hotepp episode. From Movies for Life, it's Brian Kuiper and Michelle Egan. Hey, guys. Hey, hey. Hello. We're back. Yeah. I am so thrilled that you guys are back. It's always great having you on. I love talking to you guys.
00:01:24
Speaker
Um, I've done an episode of your show. You guys have both individually and collectively done episodes on this show.
Arnie April Theme Month Kickoff
00:01:31
Speaker
So always a joy to talk to you. And, um, we, uh, I will, I will say a couple of years ago on this very podcast in April, we did a theme month of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies that we called Arnie April.
00:01:50
Speaker
And so, ironically, we have elected this April to do a sequel. Yes, I know. The irony is not lost on us. We are doing a sequel to Arnie April called Arnie April 2, Austrian Boogaloo.
00:02:10
Speaker
to kick it off. Literally, that's just what I called it. The other guys did not have any input on that whatsoever. That's 100% Steven invention. So if you love it, I'll take the credit. If you hate it, I'll take the blame. Either way, it's all good. 100% credit for that. Where I'm sitting right now, that's just perfection. I'll drink to that. Excellent. Literally taking a drink.
00:02:40
Speaker
But to kick it off, we have elected to talk about a movie that, when I shot you guys the list of failed franchise starters, you both leapt at this movie. You were both incredibly excited to talk about this movie. Michelle, what movie have you guys elected to discuss with us today?
Deep Dive into Commando
00:03:02
Speaker
Oh, me. OK, I like this. We are discussing, from 1985, the masterpiece that is Commando.
00:03:11
Speaker
Yes. Commando. She did. I know you did. Indeed you did. Those were words that were said. 1980 times. Gauntlet chucked into the air like so many a hollow pipe. Yes.
00:03:33
Speaker
From 1985, Commando, directed by Mark L. Lester, produced by Joel Silver, story by Jeff Loeb, Matt Wiseman, Steven Idesuzo, who takes the sole screenplay credit, and starring the man of the hour, Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with Ray Don Chong, Alyssa Milano, Dan Hideo, the great Vernon Wells,
00:03:56
Speaker
David Patrick Kelly, the great Bill Duke, and is that, yes it is, I blinked, I almost missed it, Bill Paxton in this movie. That's how you know it's an 80s action movie because you get a surprise Bill Paxton cameo. What a cast, I'm gonna say it.
00:04:18
Speaker
Yeah, he shows up and you're like, oh, OK. Oh, that's right. It's it's it's a year before game over, man. Like it's a year before he really pops. He's already been killed by a terminator. And he has yet to be killed by a predator or an alien, but he's on his way. What a cast. What a picture, guys, like. What a picture. Phenomenal. I love this movie.
00:04:46
Speaker
Yeah, you, Michelle, were beyond excited. So you actually brought your copy of the Blu-ray to basically show for like show and tell.
00:04:58
Speaker
You just keep it with you wherever you go. Well, often I as well, as on our Follow That Bird episode, brings visual aids to an audio podcast. Yes. Look, I did it when I covered Citizen Kane with you guys. I had all my copies of all my Orson Weld stuff, just like in a pile next to my desk.
00:05:22
Speaker
So I get it, I'm right there with you. So I guess let's start, before we get into this movie specifically, since this is an Arnold theme month, I am curious to know what your guys' relationship with Arnold Schwarzenegger is as an actor, as a, let's say a cultural icon, as it were. Michelle, why don't we start with you? What is your relationship to Arnold?
00:05:52
Speaker
Well, it's kind of changed recently. So yeah, as Brian and I did discuss, we had this discussion. Yeah, because last year, both Arnold and Sylvester Stallone had documentaries come out or about themselves. And kind of watching that and also I've been kind of watching a little bit more Stallone stuff. I was like, I don't know for most of my life, I think I would have said that, you know, in the
00:06:20
Speaker
the match up between the two of them. I probably would have said that I was an Arnold fan, like all the way, like he was my favorite to watch. But now we're kind of looking back at it, I think Sly is probably my favorite now. But I mean, Arnold
00:06:38
Speaker
especially this time period, this like perfect Arnold, you know, like peak physique kind of stuff. Like this movie was pretty much just made just for him to like do cool shit. And I'm totally cool with that. And he's a lot of fun as an actor, just I think in this, in this like period, I think probably my favorite of his movies is Predator.
00:07:04
Speaker
that's probably like the best i would say that's probably the best movie that he's in predator or terminator i don't know that's hard i'm i'm terminator too slightly over the first one yeah i'm more of a predator person than terminator i've become more of a predator person within the last few years 100 it's so good it's so good
00:07:28
Speaker
So you're like a person. I should probably say that I am a terminator person. I don't actually like the first predator. It's scary so much as a kid that I've never really latched onto it. I've tried to watch it since and I just have been unsuccessful.
00:07:51
Speaker
Because you're scared of it? That's interesting. I think it's like genuinely a good like movie, not just like. Yeah, I agree. When's the last time you really like? When's the last time you really sat with it? I bought the Blu-ray and I tried watching it and then I was just like, I don't know. I did. I got past the first little bit and was and I don't know, I fell asleep or moved on and I didn't
00:08:21
Speaker
turn it back on. So I haven't really watched Predator since it came out on VHS back in the 80s. Give it another go. I think you should. You got to wait. You got to wait for it to shift gears because that's it. I love this movie. Yeah, praise a good one. I didn't. I still haven't seen. I need to do prayer. I need to sit with pray. Yeah.
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah, so the Terminator, I think, had just a profound effect on me. When I first saw it, I was all in on that movie. I remember seeing Terminator 2 in the theater, you know, mass hysteria, excitement of it all. It was something, actually, all of my family went to it together, which was kind of interesting, kind of cool.
00:09:16
Speaker
I think if I have to pick, I'm probably picking the first one, but that's just because I like scrappy and low budget. And that first Terminator is definitely that. My relationship with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Boy, I think I'm pretty sure Commando was the first one I saw and I thought it was pretty awesome. And then my uncle said, oh, you guys should see Terminator.
00:09:45
Speaker
And then we saw Terminator and then we saw, you know, like everything that we could think of, you know, red heat and raw deal and, um,
00:09:55
Speaker
Conan and Red Sonja. You know, I didn't see Conan the Barbarian until I was about 42 years old. I still haven't. So, yeah. And I've never seen the sequels. You covered Red Sonja last or the last time we did our Arnold month. So that movie is, it's an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie that just happens to have Brigitte Nielsen as the title character is really what it is.
00:10:23
Speaker
Uh, fair enough. Um, but you know that we loved his comedy period, you know, or, and then, then he, by one week, what do you got after a racer and stuff like that? Things just sort of what happened, you know, but, um, at that point,
00:10:38
Speaker
Politics, maybe? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even like the last action hero, I remember seeing the last action here on the theater, which has become a wonderful sort of cult classic now, but seeing it in the theater and going, what the hell is this? You know, as a kid, I do appreciate it now, but at the time it was like, I don't think anyone was prepared for what that movie was trying to do in 93. No, I don't
Arnold's Career Transition
00:11:05
Speaker
think so. Like that movie is probably 10 years ahead of its time.
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, then of course, you know, like that, that, but that central backbone where you got, you know, like terminator up to like total recall. I mean, that's, that's some pretty core stuff. Um, uh, with, you know, I don't know that red heat is great. And I don't know that raw deal really, um, made my.
00:11:27
Speaker
Top 10 list. But, um, you know, they, uh, I haven't seen it since the day though. Um, but, uh, you know, we were big fans of twins and kindergarten cop and all that. Yeah. I think, I mean, Arnold, this is kind of garden cop. This is one of those ones on TV all the time.
00:11:50
Speaker
I think you extend Arnold's glory run to 91 with Terminator 2. Because after that, or 90, yeah, 90. Oh, of course, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. The only ones you have, I think, in between, what did we, where did we start? In between that and Terminator 2 is Kindergarten Cop, which we all love, so. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I had my, I had my dates a little wrong there, but yeah, absolutely all the way through Terminator 2 and stuff.
00:12:20
Speaker
But then after that, you get last action here, which again, we covered last time. And that's where I think the decline of Arnie starts that kind of happening right in front of us, where he's sort of trying to like poke at what it is that makes him a star and what it is that makes him a draw. And audiences are starting to move on to other things. Like we've just seen dinosaurs on screen, like for real live dinosaurs. So is a guy who's just made of muscles still that kind of a draw?
00:12:50
Speaker
Maybe not. Well, the new action hero also came around with Bruce Willis in Die Hard and with Keanu Reeves in both Point Break and Speed. You know, so you had sort of like the regular guy action hero. That happens right as Arnie's beginning his comedy period, too. So there's it's almost like he's just kind of backing up and letting them have it at that point. Mm hmm. Which I don't know, it's kind of interesting.
00:13:21
Speaker
It is. It's an interesting sort of shift. And I think some of the stuff he's done since leaving politics, sort of these little movies every now and then, I mean, there's been the big ones like The Expendables, but he also did like, you know, Maggie, that zombie movie with Abigail Breslin and sort of some interesting choices along the way, I think. We covered Killing Gunther a couple of years ago, which is a small indie movie where he plays an assassin that is
00:13:49
Speaker
deeply weird and pretty funny, honestly. Yeah, I haven't seen that one. I haven't even heard of that one, to be honest. It was an obscure little gem that I dug out of obscurity to cover on this podcast. Sounds interesting. Because we wanted something from his post-gubinatorial era to cover. Sure. So we picked that one out rather than delving into the terminators because there's a couple of those to choose from. So we just picked that one out.
00:14:19
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah, Arnold. All right, so now the big question, why Commando? Because it's awesome. When did you first see Commando, Michelle?
00:14:38
Speaker
Honestly, it was only a few years ago. So it's a new love. But I mean, like I said, when I first saw it, I was like, okay, so this movie pretty much was just made and exists just to show off 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I am here for that. I actually watched, I was watching a YouTube video before we got on about like, it was like,
00:15:01
Speaker
five reasons why commando is so good. One reason was just Arnold, because, you know, this is 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger was like, we were introduced to him with a sweet shot of his biceps as he was carrying around a fucking tree as if that's a normal thing that a person does. Literally what I said when he walked on screen carrying a fucking tree on his arm.
00:15:28
Speaker
Like, what should I like? Yeah, we just like rip that thing right out of the ground. The number of things he rips out of the ground in this movie, like he's just pulling shit up out of the ground, like the entire he just picks up a phone booth with a guy in it and just throws it.
00:15:48
Speaker
Why not? Like, that's something a person can do. Like, we don't have a car. Yeah, we do. Just push this one over. It's fine. We're good to go. Right. Just tip that one on the side. Here we go. No, I mean, it's just fun. It's a 180s action movie. It's so it's so fast-paced and quick. I mean, when I started it, I was like, how long is this again? It's an hour and a half. And it takes place over the course of what, like a day or two?
00:16:18
Speaker
And it's just 11 hours. It just goes, that's right. Of course. It just goes, goes, goes. And there's no stopping. And it's full of just ridiculous one-liners and action sequences that you're watching it and you're like,
00:16:33
Speaker
Okay, so he's getting on a plane. There's no way he's gonna be getting out of that. Oh, okay. What's happening now? It's just it's unbelievable. And like, I think everybody, all the characters, everybody in the cast, like knows what they're watching this guy do is unbelievable. And they like absolutely show it on their faces. And that's kind of part of the charm of it too.
00:16:55
Speaker
is that they know that this is ridiculous, but everyone's just kind of going along with it, and it's just such a fun movie. Like, we need movies like this in our life, I think. You know? I agree. Brian,
Iconic 80s Action Films Compared
00:17:12
Speaker
what can I do? I think this is the movie. Yeah, okay. I think this is the movie that creates the Arnold persona, because the Terminator,
00:17:23
Speaker
And Conan kind of gave him his exposure, I guess, but Terminator is a different kind of thing. I mean, he's a bad guy. He's a machine. It's not about any sort of, you know, action hero kind of thing. Whereas this is him trying to rival Stallone.
00:17:44
Speaker
you know, you know, create the Arnold persona. Yeah, and you have the good guy, you know, the good guy that the whole reason why he's a good guy in the second Terminator, you know, is because he's been a good guy in all these movies, you know? And so we can have him come back as a bad guy.
00:18:02
Speaker
You know, he didn't play bad guys anymore. He only played heroes and and Here this is sort of the cementing of that. I mean you Grab the line you steal the line from the Terminator. I'll be back and But then you pop it all the one-liners, you know all those really really bad one-liners James Bond level one-liners if I'm being real. Yeah
00:18:29
Speaker
Yeah. Where's Sully? Oh, I let him go. I had to let him go. Yeah. I mean, it's... Oh, he had to split. Let off some steam, Bennett. Let off some steam, Bennett.
00:18:44
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, so all of those, you know, it's like with the, it's, yeah, there you go. I'm really hungry. I'm really, really hungry. This is what, you know, uh, from the Simpsons with the dry cool wit like that, I could be an action hero. Um, so anyway, so this was, I, like I said, I do believe this was the first Arnold Schwarzenegger movie I saw. Hmm.
00:19:13
Speaker
And my brother and I watched it several times. Because I mean, it's 90 minutes. It doesn't take long to get through the thing. No, piece of cake. And yeah. And so anyway, and a lot of shit blows up in the end of it, you know? Yeah. So it's cool. Yeah, which we love to see. Ideal, ideal for, you know,
00:19:40
Speaker
pre-adolescent boys in 1986 or whatever it was when this was out on video. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Probably would have had to been 86, 87. But yeah, I was like at the end of this movie, I'm thinking to myself, like when he starts like putting on the, you know, the nighttime camouflage makeup and gets all suited up. I'm like, that's his character from Predator.
00:20:07
Speaker
Like that's like that. He plays that. You could you could absolutely make me believe that John Matrix just goes by the nickname Dutch when he's out on missions. And that's the same guy. Like you you you could you could convince me of that because and I think that plays right into what you're saying, Brian. Like this is the crystallization of that persona of like who he becomes as an action star.
00:20:37
Speaker
And this, I think then, because of that, starts to inform what the 80s action movie is from that point forward. Like it's giant, muscly guys shooting guns with unlimited ammunition that they never have to reload, and just blowing up a bunch of vaguely South American villains, like, right, or Russians.
00:21:01
Speaker
Right. And you know, this this is the same year as First Blood part two. Right. Which is so far removed from First Blood. I mean, you can't even, you know, I mean, it's just it's nutty how how just so separated they are from each other. This is like the 80s action film, whereas First Blood, we talked about First Blood a couple of months ago.
00:21:29
Speaker
uh feels like a 70s action movie still in a lot of ways until the last section it's like the bridge where everything explodes yeah right right but before that it's a 70s action movie you know where the guy gets hurt and he um you know has to
00:21:50
Speaker
you know, sew himself up and you know, it hurts what he does it instead of just being like, oh, I'm gonna put this gunpowder in the wound and just blow it open and you know, it's all gonna be fine, you know. Right, cauterize it with gunpowder in a match, yeah. Right, right, exactly. So anyway, that's just a, it's interesting to see how far action movies switch over between,
00:22:19
Speaker
You know, which between first blood, which feels like the first real eighties action movie and here, you know, even the second Rambo and commando, which kind of feel like they're competing with each other, almost feel like responses to each other, even though they came out the same year. So that doesn't feel possible unless they said, Oh, Rambo two is going into production and it's going to be a crazy, you know, one man army movie. Let's cut that off of the past and put Arnold in doing it.
00:22:47
Speaker
Right, in Arnold saying I want my, I don't know, like I want my Rambo. Like I want to play, what would it look like if I played Rambo?
00:22:56
Speaker
Right. Which, I mean, even this script is such a far cry from the original concept that Jeff Loeb wrote. According to what I read, Loeb was, he wrote a movie about an Israeli soldier who had like completely force-worn violence altogether. And it was supposed to be played by Gene Simmons of Kiss fame. Of Kiss? Yes.
00:23:25
Speaker
who passed, and so because he passed, it was handed off to Steven DeSouza, the guy who would go on to give us Die Hard and Street Fighter, see our previous episode on Street Fighter, who then turned it into just an Arnold vehicle. Like, let's just put Arnold at the center of this and go. And so I don't, like, you know, to your point, Michelle, like I think the reason that this feels like so perfectly tailored to Arnold is because
00:23:53
Speaker
It was. It was perfectly tailored to Arnold and to what he... I think so. I think so. I think it works very well because they tailor it directly to him. So we've talked a little bit about Arnold. This director, Mark L. Lester, do we know anything about Mark Lester? Anyone familiar with him? His work at all? Firestarter, class of 1984.
00:24:24
Speaker
So, I mean, there's a couple of things. That's the guy, yeah. I knew that name sign. I kind of love Class of 1984. Showdown in Little Tokyo. Yeah. That would be amazing. I've never seen it. It's a shame it got a sequel. You have to. Yeah, I'll check that one out. Okay. Got one of the best line readings of any movie ever. You'll know when you hear it.
00:24:51
Speaker
Okay. Now I'm excited. Now I got to figure out where this movie's streaming. That one got a sequel though, Class of 1999. I love Class of 1984 because it's a music teacher that kills a bunch of teenagers. So how perfect is that? Class... You can relate. Unless I'm remembering this wrong, Class of 99 has a bleach blonde Stacy Keach in it.
00:25:18
Speaker
Oh, well, now I'm super excited to watch movie I'm thinking of. I I will watch any movie with a bleach blonde Stacy Keach in it. I mean, Stacy Keach is in it. So I'm gonna say you're right. Maybe. I don't know. I want you to be right so bad.
00:25:40
Speaker
So Bleach Bond Stacey Keech, yes please. There's a great, there's a great, do you see the still from whatever movie it is I'm thinking of where he's eating a banana. Yeah, it is Class of 99. He's amazing. Hell yeah. All right. I'll definitely check that out for sure. I gotta admit, it's been a while since I've seen the original
00:26:03
Speaker
Well, I haven't seen the remake, so the original fire starter, but that was, I believe the first Stephen King adaptation I saw. Um.
00:26:13
Speaker
So Mark L. Lester is providing a lot of firsts for me here, apparently. So he is your first army, your first king. Like, that's pretty worse. So it's, uh, you know, he also directed the John Candy Eugene Levy, Meg Ryan comedy. I saw that not that long ago. And it was surprising.
00:26:39
Speaker
I don't know if it was good, but it was interesting. I don't either. It is. Yeah. It's, you know what? It's something. It's a movie. It's a movie. Yeah. Sure is a movie.
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah, so I mean, again, I think this is easily probably the biggest thing that Lester has ever done. And it just he yeah, he kind of never is able to recapture. He just seems like a very utility filmmaker, like not really one who has a lot of his own ideas, but like he shoots the script and he's really good at shooting action. I gotta say, the action looks really good in this. It really does. Yeah, it does.
00:27:23
Speaker
I mean, maybe I'm just used to the way we shoot action now, which is almost indecipherable. But like, like everything's very clean. It's in frame. The practical effects look brilliant. Real explosions. There's stuff on fire. I love it. Yeah, he knows what he's doing. He's at least a decent filmmaker. I would agree. I would agree. And, you know, I know I said I wouldn't do the plot in 60 seconds, but
00:27:55
Speaker
Honestly, what plot? I mean, it's, uh, basically. Michelle did it for me in five seconds. Yeah. Basically. I would say Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter gets kidnapped. So he goes and kills a bunch of people and blows shit up the end. Is that not what I exactly what I said.
00:28:16
Speaker
I mean, I think you put it even a little more succinctly. Arnold's daughter gets kidnapped and he kills everyone, I think is what you said, Michelle. Yeah, that's what I said. But I mean, essentially, that's it, really. Like, there's like a trail of breadcrumbs that he follows to get there. But I mean, that's essentially the movie, folks. That has been the plot in 60 seconds. I'm just going to follow it. We spent like 60 seconds just between us all talking about it.
00:28:47
Speaker
Well, I think actually one of the interesting kind of parts of the plot is that the whole, basically the whole time that he's going around killing all these people trying to get to Dan Hideo, like he thinks he's on the plane the whole time, which I think is just kind of an interesting little like,
00:29:03
Speaker
That's true in there, you know, cuz he he doesn't like it's one of those things where it's like, it's just one it's like a it's like a one at a time fight where he has to take out this guy so this guy can't tell and then this guy can't tell and then we get to like where the like the final boss battle I remember his character's name Dan Hideo where
00:29:25
Speaker
wherever they are on that little island. He just fucking kills everyone that's there because they know that he's not on the plane. So, I don't know.
00:29:40
Speaker
And they don't figure it out till he's like on their doorstep. Like they get the call, he's not on the plane, kaboom, everything blows up. Like, yeah. So there is a little bit of a plaque on it. The reason that they kidnapped his daughter is because he wants him to kill the president of this South American country so that Arius, what did we say his name was? Arius. Could take over, basically. So, yeah.
00:30:08
Speaker
I'm getting some Noriega vibes from this situation, which again, topical. It's 85, topical. Brian's like, yep, I guess. No, I was agreeing. I'm with you. Oh, okay. But I mean, I'm a sucker for a ticking clock.
Character Analysis in Commando
00:30:31
Speaker
There's literally one in this movie.
00:30:35
Speaker
The second he jumps off the plane and looks at his watch, I'm like, 11 hours, 11. And I just got like, so my partner's looking at me like, you're crazy. What is wrong with you? And I'm just like, I'm having the best time. Like, I'm just having so much fun with how silly. I got to say, one of the things that I've noticed about I was thinking with 80s action movies in particular, and like this movie specifically, a lot of it is like his continued survival is based on dumb luck.
00:31:05
Speaker
You know, like they're just, does he know there's a swamp at the end of the LAX runway? And know that he can jump off into it?
00:31:19
Speaker
He just knows that he needs to get off that plane, and he's going to do it, whether there's a swamp there or not, because his daughter is in danger. His daughter's in danger. That's right. It's dumb luck, but it's it's always like disguised or wrapped in this air of this guy knows like he's like,
00:31:39
Speaker
He goes into the bathroom and closes the door right as that stewardess rounds the corner. And then he just, you see it, there's a closeup of his face. He's like sitting there waiting. And then like five seconds go by and he just opens the door. No stewardess. And he just does exactly what he needs to do because she's a car. He always knows exactly where to go. He knows exactly where to go on this plane. He always knows exactly where to go. He knows exactly where to go on this plane to get out. And he knows if this stewardess, you know, has this really nice car.
00:32:07
Speaker
I can rip the seed out. She's going to help me. I don't even. She's going to hate me at first. She's going to be like Willie from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for like, you know, a little while. But then I'm going to show her a picture of my daughter and she's going to help me.
00:32:23
Speaker
It's she's going to get it, get it, you know, because it's going to click and she's not going to be as useless as Willie either because she's going to figure out how to shoot a rocket launcher. She knows how to fly. She's going to magically know how to fly a plane. She's because she works on getting her pilot's license. That's true. Just like coincidentally, even though it's basically a canoe again. So get in and start playing. Yeah.
00:32:51
Speaker
He also, he also happens to know her name without anybody else ever saying it, which he just kind of says it. That's true. We're like, Oh, her name is Cindy. Who knew? Yeah, he must have, he must have looked at her wallet at some point. I don't know. Like she, at one point she says she's got an advanced karate class later, but then we never see her like find anybody. I know I was kind of in the same with his daughter, like at the beginning, like
00:33:15
Speaker
He's teaching his daughter how to do the defense moves and stuff, and we never see her in school. She's all resourceful in getting out of the room. She is. She talks back. She's not afraid to let them know that her dad's been killed. She's good at sass. She's very good at sass. I mean, this is like 12-year-old Alyssa Milano, so this is like
00:33:37
Speaker
the sassiest little girl who ever lived until we get to Eliza Dushku in True Lies. But pretty much the same vein, really. Like those two are cut from the same cloth. Exactly. No, we absolutely stan Eliza Dushku on this podcast. 100%. Yes, we do.
00:34:00
Speaker
Yes, we do. Every podcast, I think, should stand up as it do, quite frankly. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes, please.
00:34:11
Speaker
But like we I like I wanted to see these women do more than just like be vessels for exposition. Like for most of the movie, Cindy just exists as someone that Arnold can like tell the plot to. And I'm just like, I mean, she knows karate, apparently. Let her like let her kick one guy. I think she said that to to to make him think that that she had a new karate, but she doesn't actually she was lying.
00:34:43
Speaker
OK, but what what is karate going to do against like a mountain of well, because it is your. You know, it's it's user partners use your enemies strength against them, use their size against them, that whole thing. I don't know. That was another one. I also thought you're saying that with the proper training, you could take down Arnold. Is that what I'm hearing, Brian?
00:35:13
Speaker
He's old. Did you ever see that video? This is horrible. Arnold Schwarzenegger is at this event like the Arnold, you know, the weightlifting competition. And some guy just takes him, just runs at him and does like a flying air kick right into Arnold Schwarzenegger's back without him knowing that
00:35:41
Speaker
This is happening. Yeah. So he technically took out Arnold Schwarzenegger before he was most likely arrested. Just to say that he did it. It's like, why would you, why would you do that? It's just like, I don't know.
00:36:00
Speaker
There's probably a little bit of juice flowing in that particular arena, so you don't know what peoples have on their minds. One of the things I thought that was interesting about the Raid on Chong character is that she is sort of in another movie, she's the love interest, but she's not really in this.
00:36:24
Speaker
Apparently, they filmed the love scene for this movie and it was too unconvincing. Arnold Schwarzenegger was unconvincing as a man who would... Yeah, because when is he ever the lover in any movie that he's in? I don't think he ever has a love scene in any of his movies.
00:36:46
Speaker
I mean, the closest you get is maybe total recall. Jamie Lee Curtis. Jamie Lee Curtis? That's true. She does a little sexy dance. I know. She does a little sexy dance. Yeah. He's just sitting in a chair. Like the most he does is drop the tape recorder. That's the most he does in that movie. Well, in that scene. Okay. Not in that movie. But yeah, I agree. Like there is...
00:37:14
Speaker
And of course, we should mention Ray Don Chong, daughter of Tommy Chong, of Cheech and Chong. So just putting that out there into the world. Brother of Marcus, or sister of Marcus Chong from The Matrix. John Matrix, The Matrix, Chong's in both.
00:37:32
Speaker
There you go. Coincidence? Probably. Probably. Who's Marcus John in The Matrix? He plays Tank, or no, Doze. No, Tank in The Matrix. Okay. Yeah, guy in the chair. The guy who wanted way too much money to come back for the sequel, so they're like, nah, we'll give it to Harold Parano instead. One of the things I do find interesting though, is the number of action heroes that are named John.
00:38:00
Speaker
There's John Rambo, John Kimball, John McLean, John Matrix. So that's four. You know, that's just off the top of my head. I bet there are more.
00:38:18
Speaker
And that's more than three. Absolutely. It's almost like John is one of the most common names in the English speaking world. But I think it fits with the action star because you just have to say the name quick. You know, John. Sounds better than like Chad or something.
00:38:40
Speaker
But then all of those last names are two syllables. So you got a total of three syllables and a name, which is perfect action star length of a name. Just like boom, boom, boom. And we're done. Yeah. It's why James Bond always says he's bond James Bond because it's three syllables.
00:38:58
Speaker
If only his name was John. I know. Close. James is close. We could have had another one. It is. It is. It's pretty close. And I was thinking Jack Ryan, too. There you go. Well, we missed that one by... John Wick. It's the J name. Like, there was...
00:39:14
Speaker
John Wick. There it is. That's two syllables, though. That one breaks the convention. But that's a modern deconstruction of what an action movie is. It's completely different from those other action movies. So, you know, we move on 20 years, 20, 30 years, and now all of a sudden we're dropping a syllable. Yeah, it does. It makes sense. Challenge what this thing is. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm ridiculous. Maybe it's the Jay thing. You know, you have like Jason Bourne, too.
00:39:43
Speaker
You know. Mm hmm. There's there's the J is a very like. There you go. Even on like TV. You the J is it's strong. It's a it's a it's a strong and they're the most some of the most common masculine names. I'll begin with J. James, John, Jack, Jim. All of those are very. James, but that's OK. Yeah, sure. Sure.
00:40:10
Speaker
Right. But like, but again, like, it's just again, I think it's just a very strong name. And so we we put that and that I don't know, it works for our purpose. It does. Right. Like, but again, I think John Matrix is simultaneously the best and most ridiculous example of like this action movie name because what this is not a real person's name. No person in this world is named John Matrix unless they're just a really big commando fan and change their name.
00:40:41
Speaker
Well, his unit was all given like new identities and everything. So this is probably something that he made up. You know, that's true. Yeah. Well, they, they all know him as Matrix. So that was probably his original name. But yeah, nobody, I think the John Jack thing, now that I'm thinking of that, that kind of gives the action hero like an everyman quality too. It's true.
00:41:04
Speaker
That probably just kind of gives them more of the relatable. So even if you can't relate to all the cool shit that they're able to do, it's like, hey, they do have like an every man name. So I can feel cool like him just for a second. Hi. My name is John. Maybe I'm that John. Maybe I'm that cool. Like when Homer changes his name to power. He got it from a hairdryer. Right. That's.
00:41:35
Speaker
Um, we're watching this movie and my partner, who's a huge Simpsons fan goes, this kind of makes, she was not as big a fan of this as I was. Uh, but she said, this kind of makes like the McBain, like clips on the Simpsons feel like Oscar. And I was like, well, where do you think the McBain clips are? What do you think they're cribbing from? And she's like, this, I'm like, Wolf castle is.
00:42:00
Speaker
Absolutely, Harry Shearer's Arnold Schwarzenegger. I mean, there's no question about it. It's such a, it's so thinly veiled. Right. And he's, he's married to, he's married to the Quimby family and the Quimby's are Dan Castle and that is very thinly veiled Kennedy. Like it's, it's all connected. It's all there.
00:42:19
Speaker
Um, so I mean, yeah, it's, I dunno, I, I think I find it hilarious and ridiculous, but like, again, I think this kind of crystallizes what an eighties action movie was.
Legacy of 80s Action Films
00:42:30
Speaker
And then McTiernan just goes and deconstructs it with predator two years later and is like, uh, yeah, but what if there was a scary alien too? And then it gets deconstructed further and die hard in so much so that it sort of creates a new version of the action movie.
00:42:51
Speaker
It kind of the mold a little bit and those Stallone Schwarzenegger action films are never know I mean when you look at the expendables they're kind of I haven't even seen a complete one of those but I've just yeah, I saw about just a little bit of it, but I
00:43:11
Speaker
They're they just have that that they're trying to recapture that thing but they're just not and you can't do it because they're all
00:43:27
Speaker
Old? Old. Yes. That's the thing. You know, let's face it, the ones who do most well, I guess was it Stallone in the documentaries, like he he got more injured on the expendables than he had been on anything else. He just went for it so much. Yeah. So. Well, it's the same thing he was trying to do in that movie Grudge Match with De Niro, like you pit Rocky. Basically, you're putting Rocky against Jake LaMotta.
00:43:57
Speaker
Yeah, and so it's but but again, it doesn't quite work because these are not two guys at their peak. Like these are two guys about 20 years past that.
00:44:08
Speaker
And it feels like it's trying to recapture something that we were kind of better off forgetting. And I want to see more action movies like this, but I mean, we're not really a society anymore that has movie stars to take on. The only one I can really think of that in America, that's at least that's doing this is like Jason Statham. I mean, you've got The Beekeeper is kind of this movie.
00:44:38
Speaker
I don't know if you saw anyone saw that. It's just, you know. Yeah, I know. I know. But the whole idea of, you know, of the beekeeper is you swindled my
00:44:58
Speaker
my friend this old lady out of all her money so I'm going to go and destroy you and so that's pretty much what happens and it's to connect the dots until you get to the final big boss and it turns out to be I'm not going to give it away but um it's it's a similar kind of thing it
00:45:14
Speaker
Well, yeah, there's also Keanu Reeves with John Williams or Liam Neeson. Yeah, but even they are, they're, they're, they're not. Or unstoppable. There's like so many other ones that he. But I mean, as far as the physicality, I mean, it's a different kind of physicality, though, than we're talking about with Rambo. I think we're all forgetting Tom Cruise and Mission Impossible. Oh, right. Oh, yeah.
00:45:38
Speaker
Like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible is pretty much trying to bring back this kind of a movie just within the confines of that franchise. I guess I've always thought of those as more along the lines of like James Bond, though.
00:45:56
Speaker
They are, but also like, in terms of like the physicality, like he's doing all for himself. And so I think we've got I mean, at least that element of it, I think is very much a part of what he's doing in those movies. No, I that's fair.
00:46:15
Speaker
So all right. But yeah, I mean, because because I mean, he's pretty much he's pretty much an actor. One of the last movie stars we have who is who makes his physicality central to most every movie that he's in anymore. And he only makes movies with like three guys anymore. It's like Chris McCrory, Doug Lyman.
00:46:38
Speaker
I don't even know who, no, it's the guy from Oblivion. We just talked about him a couple of weeks ago. Kaczynski, Joseph Kaczynski, like those are his guys now. Like he just makes movies with those three guys and that's it. And he's not really challenging himself anymore, but you're an actor, you get to a certain age and you don't have to. He's earned the right to not have to challenge anyone himself or anyone else. He challenges himself to like do crazy stunts, but he's not really challenging his audience.
00:47:08
Speaker
Yeah, I kind of miss the Tom Cruise that was working with Stanley Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson and Cameron Crowe, you know, same, you know, a hundred percent.
00:47:24
Speaker
You know, when he was in that zone where he was just go to a director, go, I don't know, use me, figure something out. Like, I like what you do, put me into what you do. And like made himself kind of, but then he realized that wasn't working. Like he gets nominated for three Oscars in the 90s, he doesn't win one of them. And so, but I mean, this is all a great thing to talk about on an Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is, it is. But I mean, I don't think there is
00:47:53
Speaker
really the current Arnold Schwarzenegger action hero, though. I mean, the closest thing we get to an action movie these days are comic book movies. And those are all previs. Those are all done on computers or with wire work. Like, the physicality of this movie doesn't come into play on those at all.
00:48:16
Speaker
And so action movies are a completely different thing now. And that's a real bummer. We need someone to remake, re-envision. I mean, again, I think the John Wick guys, Stehlsky and Leech are probably the closest guys we have doing anything like that these days.
00:48:36
Speaker
And yeah, I think even like the Indiana Jones movies, the originals worked so heavily with stunts. And then you get to the last two. And again, it's oh, we can do it in a computer. So we're just going to do it in a computer. Yeah, it looks like rubber. And yeah, it's not. So I mean, even they have taken on sort of the
00:49:05
Speaker
the, that superhero movie quality to them. Um, so, which, you know, there are good examples of those too. We didn't have to rely on computers for everything. Yeah. But yeah, when we didn't have to rely on computers for everything and had to like, had limitations that made us more creative. I'm sorry, Michelle, go ahead.
00:49:29
Speaker
Oh, I was just gonna say, I think there are some really cool, I'm not, I'm no expert or anything, but there are definitely some cool international action movies that are kind of centering, the ones I'm thinking of the most are like the raid movies where they just, they basically kind of just enter a fight style and show that off. Instead of like showing off like a single person, even though it is one, there's
00:49:52
Speaker
Two guys that are like fucking awesome in those movies. The I cannot think of their names of their ego. I don't know how to say it right is the the main actor in the raid. But then like the the fight choreographer is like the little guy that he fights. He has a big fight with later on.
00:50:13
Speaker
And just showing off that style of Indonesian fighting, it's kind of what that whole movie is all about. And it rules the raid too as well. But I kind of prefer the first one, because it's more contained. And I like that kind of style of movie, where it's just him. It's die hard. Basically, he's going through the building fighting people.
00:50:42
Speaker
Which, you know, you love to see it. Honestly, that sounds a lot like what they wanted the sequel to this movie to be. Or at least what Steven D'Souza had in mind when he wrote a sequel to this movie that was never filmed.
00:50:59
Speaker
It was rumored for a long time that D'Souza's script became his basic concept for Dihan, because they did have the similarity of the building. But D'Souza's like, no, that was based on a book that was a sequel to a book called The Detective, which had years ago starred Frank Sinatra.
00:51:19
Speaker
which is why they had to offer Die Hard to Frank Sinatra first. And he had to pass on it before they could cast literally anyone else because he had that in his contract for the detective. A thing I find hilarious. Yeah. So as soon as it's like, no, that had nothing to do with that. I adapted that directly from that book. I added a few more things. That was it.
00:51:43
Speaker
I will actually read to you verbatim what he said about his script for Commando 2, because it's kind of crazy, and I kind of love it.
Commando Sequel Speculations
00:51:55
Speaker
This is a direct quote. So for Commando 2, we figured that Arnold, after blowing up half of Los Angeles, achieves some notoriety, retires from the army, and by the time the sequel occurs, is running a security firm. The plot would have seen him hired by a big corporation to oversee their security, to protect their executives from being kidnapped, to stop people breaking into their building, and to make sure their computers are secure.
00:52:18
Speaker
So he sets it up and hires the most dangerous people to be guards in the building. And then, lo and behold, he discovers the people that he's working for are in the illegal arms business, and the big corporation is simply a front. The end of the movie would see Jenny and Cindy, who is now a lawyer, trapped in the building, and Arnold now has to defeat all the people he hired, all the meanest, toughest guards, as well as the security systems, the guard dogs, everything.
00:52:45
Speaker
So now the awareness of Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to break into the building got conflated with Bruce Willis being trapped in a building. If there's anything out there that resembles what Commando 2 was meant to be, it would probably be the recent Stallone Schwarzenegger movie Escape Plan. This is D'Souza from an interview. And honestly, kind of sounds a little like The Raid. Yeah. Going up the building, fighting people until you get to the final boss. Pretty much, yeah.
00:53:14
Speaker
I mean, again, and it's it's that Trail of Breadcrumbs thing, it's that connect the dots, like that kind of seems to be what this what what D'Souza liked to write at this point. But yeah, I would, I'd absolutely see that movie 100% I'd see that. That actually sounds pretty cool. Like all I mean, it's another just kind of like one guy taking on everybody kind of thing.
00:53:38
Speaker
But I think that's what the Commando movie, I mean, that's what this movie is. And I feel like if you're going to make this a franchise, which someone wanted to because the Sousa wrote the script, like, I think if you're going to make this a franchise, that's a great.
00:53:54
Speaker
That's a great point to spotlight, I think. Instead of it being so big and him jumping out of planes and going to another island and keep it contained would be a totally different way to go. Yeah, I like that. How long after the first commando did that script get presented was that when
00:54:22
Speaker
Was that significantly later or was it just a few years? I get the impression that it was probably within a few years. I mean, the fact that Die Hard comes out around 83, you can probably see why people might make the mistake that Die Hard was supposed to be Commando 2.
00:54:47
Speaker
But I don't have any indication of that whatsoever. Nothing from what I've found. I've got another source here pulled up that I'm just kind of scrolling through. Yeah, nothing that I can see as to when that script would have been penned. But yeah, it does look, however, like we might be a little premature.
00:55:16
Speaker
on covering Commando because last July, it was announced that Arnold was signing on to reprise the role of John Matrix in a Commando sequel called Commando Retribution. I was thinking while we were watching this, while I was watching this, you know, we still got a lot of these players around here. So, you know, I mean, Alyssa Milano is
00:55:42
Speaker
Alive. I don't know. I see her. She's, I think she's still working. I haven't seen her in anything. I mean, yeah, I think she's still around. She's still doing stuff. The last credit on her IMDB page is a 2023, a segment at a 2023 movie called a theory of film night 2023. All right. Yeah. Uh,
00:56:09
Speaker
Probably a short, like she's doing a lot of shorts, like nothing big, nothing like huge, but yeah, she's still working. She's on an episode of Grey's Anatomy in 2019. Like, yeah, she's still doing stuff. And I mean, my favorite actor from this and an actor that, and I talked about him a few weeks ago when we covered Action Jackson, just an actor I love every time he's on screen, the immortal. Absolutely. God, I love that guy.
00:56:38
Speaker
Like he's he's just got the best look of any act like he's just got those deep dark sunken eyes. And he just like so stoic, so serious of he get killed. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. He's just not in this movie very much. I remember that kind of freaking me out. That idea of landing on a table leg of a
00:57:03
Speaker
of a coffee table and just like going out Dracula style like that, that sort of freaked me out as a kid, I remember a little bit. This was probably the goriest movie I've ever seen up to that point, so. That makes sense. There's a lot of blood in this movie. It goes like full Jason on them. Arnold. Go ahead, Michelle.
00:57:28
Speaker
He gets into the shed and he's like throwing the balls and the axes and the machetes and yeah.
00:57:38
Speaker
That's, that's what I was like clapping my hands and just cackling with glee at that moment. Just because again, it's so absurd. Like he's just been mowing these people down with like mini guns and rocket launchers. And then he just comes out swinging a bunch of saws. And I'm like, I love it. I'm this perfect. Phenomenal. Love this. No notes. It's so good. It's so good. Commando guys.
00:58:08
Speaker
What else we got? I feel like I interrupted Michelle and you. Oh.
00:58:17
Speaker
I'm used to it. I was just going to say, Arnold doesn't get all of the good one-liners. One of my favorite one-liners is from Bill Duke at the beginning when he takes the car. He's been all cool at the car dealership. What's one of his favorite things about this car? The price. Just drives right out. Price.
00:58:44
Speaker
Yeah, another example of this movie just doing whatever it wants and it being just fine. Like, okay, I did have a question I couldn't tell. Are there people in the phone booth that right on Sean blows up with the rocket launcher? Or is that a bus stop or something?
00:59:09
Speaker
Remember, she shoots the wrong launcher? I thought it was pretty empty. She goes behind her. Did she hit something? Were there people in that or not? I couldn't tell. I don't think so. But I wouldn't be surprised. I feel like it's late at night. I feel like it's late enough at night that the streets are probably pretty empty is the impression that I got. Yeah. But yeah, that I mean, yeah, that's absolutely what I thought. I also love the first four minutes of this movie. That was something that was in the video. Like I said, I watched that.
00:59:38
Speaker
something that was in the video that I was watching beforehand. I was like, I don't think there were people in there, but I wouldn't be surprised if this movie did something like that. And another thing that was just kind of funny or like rewatching this is how everyone thinks they actually have a chance against Arnold Schwarzenegger. Right.
01:00:02
Speaker
In this movie, little David Patrick Kelly, I'm sorry. He's got a little mouth on him. It's like, what are you gonna do? I'm sorry, David. You're funny. I would kill you last. Security guards at the mall. And then he kills him. Remember, remember, I would kill you last. I lied.
01:00:24
Speaker
I lied. Drops him. Everybody tries to intimidate Arnold so hard, and he's just like, I'm just going to kill you now. Have you looked at me? I'm Arnold Schwarzenegger. Come on. I am made out of biceps. You cannot hurt me.
01:00:48
Speaker
And like, I think the funniest is Dan Hideo, when he's like, Oh, yes, you're scared. Like, in brown face with that accent. I'm like, we could have we could have cast anyone.
01:01:02
Speaker
could have cast anyone but Dan Hideo. Well, I mean, I love Dan Hideo. Don't get me wrong, miscast as this villain. Like, absolutely. But he says in that horrible accent, like, you're scared of John Matrix and Vernon Wells, just space truckers own Vernon Wells, just saying in that, that beautiful, beautiful Australian accent, because I'm smart. And you're just like,
01:01:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. He goes, but I have an edge. I have his daughter. And you're just like, oh, like, this is the only guy who gets John Matrix in this entire movie. And because of that, they feel more evenly matched in their showdown, even though again, you know, we can't say it. I mean, Vernon Wells is a big guy, but he's not Arnold Big. Right.
01:01:47
Speaker
He's wearing a tank top, but we can see the arms. Is he wearing the same tank top he wore in Mad Max 2? Is that the same metal tank top in Mad Max 2? He might be. That's entirely possible. I mean, he pretty much gets this movie off of that performance. And he described his look in this movie as Freddie Mercury on steroids, which yes, absolutely.
01:02:15
Speaker
But only 5%. That is 100% of that growth came from steroids. Sorry. That was the one line in the Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary that really stuck in my craw where he says like, yeah, only like 5% of my growth came from steroids. It's like, yeah, sure.
01:02:36
Speaker
Whatever, dude. Yeah, you say so. I think he believes it. But I look, you tell yourself a lie long enough, you'll believe it. My grandfather lied about his age to get in the military in his entire life. He thought he was a year older than he actually was. Interesting. Wow. Yeah. Like, even when corrected, he would be like, No, it's not how old I am. Like,
01:03:06
Speaker
I'm just saying, like, you can convince yourself of anything if you really want to. John Matrix, again, I would I wish this had been a franchise. If look, if we do get Commando Retribution, you guys have to come back and cover it with us because there's a problem. That is our that is our that is our swarm duty to our listeners. If anything, any sequel comes out of a movie we've covered, we have to cover it. So I just like the idea of this being just as
01:03:34
Speaker
standalone, cool, quick 80s action flick though, you know? Just find the way it is.
01:03:42
Speaker
Yeah. Like there's this, there's Cobra, there's Action Jackson, and there's probably like a few more, but like there's not a lot. I'm just specifically thinking of the ones we've covered on this show fairly recently, like within the past year. But like we covered Cobra last year for I think Expendables 4. We covered Action Jackson when Carl Weathers died a little bit ago and we're doing Arnie Month, so it's Commando. Like there aren't a lot of this kind of movie that didn't get a sequel. Like if they could have made a sequel, they did usually.
01:04:11
Speaker
Raw Deal and Red Heat didn't get sequels, did they? I don't believe so, no. Now, I don't know too much about those. So I may be adding those to the I may be adding those to the list. Well, he's a he's like a Russian in that movie. And Jim Belushi is the other guy. I don't remember anything else about it. No, I've seen it. I own it. There's a fight in the snow at the beginning and they're wearing loincloths. And that's it.
01:04:40
Speaker
That's when I remember Arnold Schwarzenegger's butt. This is like prime Schwarzenegger. Michelle, how do you not remember that? I don't know. Because it's got nothing on JCVDs, but I'm sorry. It's kind of like when I think about erasers, like I should watch eraser again. Was that cool? Because all I remember about it was the alligator.
01:05:06
Speaker
Yeah, I remember nothing about Eraser, I gotta say. And I don't think I ever saw the sixth day. I don't think I saw that either. No, I missed the sixth day. I missed end of days. Collateral damage. Yeah, I never saw that one. Yeah. I do really want to go watch the Conan movies, though. I feel like I need to see those. Oh, yeah. You absolutely need to watch that. That's that's a fun little trilogy.
01:05:35
Speaker
Just knock those out. And if you want to see him get overdubbed in his very first movie ever, Hercules in New York, credited as Arnold Strong, Mr. Universe. And they didn't think anyone would understand him, so they dubbed over his voice. Ridiculous. It's wild.
01:06:01
Speaker
But yeah, the commando came out on, let me check my chart here, October 4th, 1985. It opened to number one at the box office the week that it came out to $7.7 million on its way to
01:06:20
Speaker
$35 million domestic, so quite a big multiplier, goes on to become the 21st highest grossing movie of 1985. In second place, a little movie called Jagged Edge, starring just a great group of grumblers, Robert Lojo, Lance Henriksen, Jeff Bridges. I remember- Just some of the- Yeah, I remember the poster for that movie.
01:06:50
Speaker
That's about it. I never saw it. Yeah. Yeah. Same. Never, never bothered. In third place, you've got Agnes of God. And Fonda, right? Which I know the play. Yeah. Yeah. Jane Fonda. And I think Vanessa Redgrave is? As a nun again? If I'm not mistaken. Oh, no. And Bancroft. Sorry. And Bancroft. And then Meg Tilly. Norman Jewison joined that one.
01:07:21
Speaker
Uh, in fourth place, uh, Chuck Norris, uh, invasion USA cannon films in its second weekend down from one to four. Uh, that's the power of Arnie to just knock Chuck off. Uh, to the aforementioned jagged edge directed by Richard Marquand director of return of the Jedi of return of the Jedi thing. Yes. That's the fourth best Star Wars movie. Right.
01:07:52
Speaker
and I will be offering no additional commentary on that. And then in fifth place. I think that comes out as my fourth as well, so yeah. And then in fifth place, the number one movie of 1985, it's been out for 14 weeks at this point and has already grossed 159 million, .6 million on its way to 190, a little movie called Back to the Future. Yes.
01:08:24
Speaker
Rounding out the top 10, we get Peewee's Big Adventure, Teen Wolf, Plenty, Maxi, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. I've seen Kiss of the Spider Woman. What were those three movies? Plenty, Maxi, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. I've seen Kiss of the Spider Woman, but I haven't even heard of the other two. Yeah, Kiss of the Spider Woman.
01:08:49
Speaker
Maxie is Glenn Close, Mandy Patinkin, and Ruth Gordon. So there you go. That's some 80s heat right there. And Plenty is apparently Meryl Streep, Sting, and Sir John Geelgood. A lot of Before They Were Stars talent, Hugh Laurie, Charles Dance, Sam Neill, Tracy Ullman, and Ian McKellen.
01:09:14
Speaker
uh, rounding out the rest of that cast. Well, that might need to go on the watch list. Find out some interesting things on this podcast. Never even heard of that movie before, but that cast sounds amazing. I'm not going to lie.
01:09:30
Speaker
Commando, again, ends up grossing 35 million. And again, I hit 21st highest grossing movie of the year. As action movies go, it pales in comparison to Rambo First Blood Part Two, which is the third highest grossing movie of the year and Rocky Four, which is the fourth highest grossing. So, you know, we it falls a little short of those. But you know, still does does a good bit of business and enough for a sequel in the 80s, too.
01:09:58
Speaker
The Tomatometer score on this movie is a 67%. The critics' consensus, the ultimate 80's Schwarzenegger movie, replete with a threadbare plot, outsized action, and endless one-liners.
01:10:20
Speaker
Uh, you're gonna, if you don't like that, you're really gonna hate the, the meta score, Michelle. The meta score on this one is 51. They're fucking wrong. Based on mixture average reviews from seven critics. And the letterbox score, again, gonna make you cry, is a three, 3.4. Apparently they don't like fun. 3.4 on letterboxed. Michelle, I don't even think I need to ask.
01:10:51
Speaker
and one-liners and watching Arnold pick up phone booths over his head and just chucking them on the floor and dropping guys off a cliff. The frickin' grenade explodes like a foot from where he is and it doesn't touch him. You know why? Because he's Arnold Schwarzenegger. Correct. That is the fundamental thing this movie understands that always is a bit of a load on the side of his head. Just a little touch. Just enough to show that he's human, but not enough to show that he's vulnerable.
01:11:22
Speaker
That's kind of one thing I kind of miss about, that's what we got in the 90s with like John McClain and stuff, where you got people that were actually like getting hurt. You show the hero like being hurt. And it's like, yeah, that makes them more human, but it's not as much fun as something like Commando. I want to do something like this again, like in this era of filmmaking, I think. It'd be super fun.
01:11:47
Speaker
I mean, I feel like a broken record when I say this, but they don't make them like this anymore. You should watch The Beekeeper. Yeah. Okay. It really is. Honestly, I think if there's a problem
01:12:10
Speaker
I think if there's a problem with the Statham persona, it's not... He wants to look too cool to be... Arnold was effortlessly cool. With Statham, I feel like he's trying really hard. Arnold's not afraid to get ice cream in his face, or to be seen feeding a deer. Show the softer side? That opening credit sequence, you know? Kissing his 12-year-old daughter right on the lips?
01:12:34
Speaker
That opening credit sequence is like, you know, the full house intro. I mean, it's amazing. I know, right? It is. I always think of like, how cool I would have felt. Someone should re-code it to the full house music. Being Alyssa Milano in this movie. Just be like, oh, I can't walk over this water. Just pick me up, Arnold Schwarzenegger. That would have been so cool to have that be an experience you have to that age.
01:13:00
Speaker
It's true. She said he was very protective of her on set and even helped her with her homework. So at least in 85 decent guy Arnold Schwarzenegger.
01:13:14
Speaker
Michelle, I don't think I need to ask this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway, just for the sake of completion. Out of five stars, how do you rate 1985's Commando? 20. Okay, that's what I thought. I don't know if it's clear to our listeners, but Michelle loves this movie.
01:13:40
Speaker
I might write and she loves most people. My ratings are always just kind of based off of like, personal enjoyment, you know, and just like, right feeling that I get from watching a movie if I watch it and I had a great time and it's fun and I'm in a great mood afterwards. Yeah, it's five stars. So I don't know why this one wouldn't, you know, work for that.
01:14:03
Speaker
I can't think of words today. Oh, and that's it. You love movies. Like, that's really what it comes down to. You just love movies. So. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Brian, what about you? Out of five stars, how are you ready to come in? She's going to yell at me. I give. I mean, I'm OK. I give this movie a good solid. I like this a lot. It's a lot of fun. I really enjoy it. Three and a half stars. Three and a half. I know.
01:14:34
Speaker
Uh, whereas for me, I go four, I go four on this one. Like I love it. I'm having a blast. Um, you're both wrong, but I watched Bob wire this morning and I had a great time with it. I gave that movie three stars because it was fun. It was entertaining. It was not boring. It was a remake of Casablanca. I swear.
01:14:59
Speaker
Okay. Stop right there. You need to unpack that state. She works in a bar. I saw this on social media and I was just like, she works. She was up watching this morning, by the way. I couldn't sleep. It was about two 30 in the morning and I would turn on barbed wire on the criterion channel. Thank you very much. As one does. And I don't know why. And I was like, okay, she literally works in a gin joint.
01:15:30
Speaker
Um, a place where everybody comes, she has a character in it that is, that is absolutely Captain Reyno. Um, there's a, there's her old boyfriend comes to town. Then instead of, of, uh, uh, letters of transit, they have these contact lenses that can, that are like a retinal scan where you can get through any gates that you need to. It ends at an airport with him sending her, her old flame and her, and, and
01:16:01
Speaker
his new bow off on a plane
Movies for Life Podcast Announcement
01:16:04
Speaker
and basically the Captain Rano character who saves the day. There's even like a Gutman character and all sorts of things in it. I mean, seriously, it is a very loose remake of Casablanca.
01:16:23
Speaker
Yeah. That is wild. Okay. So when we cover that, we're going to have you on to talk about it. It's not good. It's not good, but boy, wasn't entertaining. I cannot explain it. I can't put it better than that. It's like the Barbarella of it's of the nineties. It's, you know, it's, it's, it's her looking hot and changing clothes a lot and, you know, getting in adventures. I mean, that's all it is. There you go too. So, you know,
01:16:52
Speaker
Well, I'll put you on the list for barbed wire whenever we do cover it. I'd be fine with that. I had a feeling you wouldn't mind. So yeah, that is our episode on commando.
01:17:12
Speaker
Brian, Michelle, thank you guys so much for being here. I always have a blast when I'm talking to you. Always, always, always have a good time. Tell us about what you guys have going on right now in Movies for Life. Well, our most recent episode is, this is a tough question to answer. We released what is going to be our last episode for a while.
01:17:42
Speaker
We haven't told anybody so you're first to know that we released our episode of best picture winners at the beginning of March and
01:17:55
Speaker
it just hasn't worked out to be able to record honestly and we're just kind of like that's okay we're taking sort of an indefinite hiatus just to see you know how we feel about things and
01:18:11
Speaker
I don't know, but honestly, if our episode on The Apartment and Rebecca is our last, this is a good one. Uh, so we're proud of that one. Yeah. And it was a terrific conversation. And, um, yeah, so we'll, we'll, we'll see. We'll see. But hey, that makes us more available to guest on other people's shows too, you know? Binge our back catalog. Yeah. We've got.
01:18:39
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. This is a great time to get caught up. I speak to myself as well because I'm not caught up. I'm sorry. I haven't been commuting for six months, so I have not been listening to a lot of podcasts, I'm afraid. But yeah, no, I always love what you guys do. I love your discussions and your insights always and how you guys
01:19:04
Speaker
just take a look at movies and in such fun ways. And juxtapose your juxtapositions always just get my mind reeling. So no, I, I, I'm sorry to hear that things are maybe are going to be pausing for a while. But I'm more glad then that I was able to get you guys on here, because
01:19:30
Speaker
I get the first the first movies for life reunion. So I'll take it. So no, I'm thrilled. Thank you guys for coming on and talking commando with me. Everybody check out movies for life. Check out the back catalog. Michelle, should we be so inclined? Where can we find you on social medias? Sometimes you can find me over on Instagram, Michelle Egan.
01:19:57
Speaker
All right. Right on. Brian, what about yourself? You got any writing coming up? Well, I just released a review, a positive review, I might add, of the In Search of Darkness book by Patrick Bromley and Heather Wixson. That's on Bloody Disgusting.
01:20:15
Speaker
want to check that out, you can. I've got my next column piece coming out pretty soon, which is on the Bob Hope, Paulette Godard horror comedies to kind of go with Ghostbusters. And yeah, and then coming soon on Manor Vellum, I've got a piece about teaching and writing and the movie Kooties. So
01:20:45
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds amazing. So those are that's kind of what I've got in mind. And as far as social media, I don't do it a whole lot, but I
01:20:56
Speaker
every now and then we'll drop an amazing nugget like, hey, barbed wire is really a remake of Casablanca. Literally saw that before I sat down to record this thing and it's been sitting in the back of my head this entire record. Yeah, so you just never know with me. So it's at Brian waves 42 at all the all of them, whatever they are. So
01:21:22
Speaker
And all of them. The podcast is that movie life pod if you want to reach out there and if you want to find links to what we've got.
01:21:37
Speaker
And that's on Twitter and Instagram. We're like a package deal. Yeah. We're like a package deal when it comes to guesting on podcasts now. So even if we're not doing some movies for life, maybe we'll have some time to come under the crushes. Absolutely.
01:21:53
Speaker
No, I'm so glad that I was able to get you guys. And I've got you both down for quite a few. I think the last one, when we sat down to record, I don't know if it was Bubba Hotel or Citizen Kane, one of the podcasts we all recorded together, I just kind of forwarded you guys the master list. And you guys just literally went through the whole thing going, I want that one, I want that one, I want that one. So I've got more potential guest spots for you than anybody.
01:22:21
Speaker
It's been a while. It's been a hot minute because I have I have been really neglecting that list over the course of the past year. So I'm getting back to it. I'm pulling in some more some more guests now. So it's you know, it's it's kind of it can get a lot to schedule sometimes. So yeah, whether it's one of us or both of us, we'd love to be on the show at any point. Yeah. And
01:22:46
Speaker
I love talking to both of you. We we love you guys. We love what you guys do. Check out the back catalog of movies for life. Check out Brian's writing and check out. Follow, follow Michelle on Instagram. Absolutely. I post a selfie every now and then. Watch her getting getting. Yeah. Right. Just watching her like just get jacked in real time. It's like Arnold. That's right. That's right.
01:23:16
Speaker
been doing his exercise zero percent steroids on Michelle there. So 0% of that growth is steroids.
01:23:27
Speaker
We are the Disenfranchised Podcast.
Listener Engagement and Support
01:23:30
Speaker
You can find us on Instagram, Letterboxed, Facebook, and BlueSky at Disenfranchpod. You can shoot us an email at Disenfranchpod at gmail.com. Let us know how we're doing. Let us know if there are any other failed franchise starters that we haven't covered that you'd love to see us cover. If you email us, we'll probably read it on the podcast.
01:23:51
Speaker
So get those emails in and while you're on the internet slide on over to Apple podcast Spotify wherever you get your podcasts leave us a five-star rating and review that goes quite a long way to helping us find new listeners like yourselves and Frankly, we think you're pretty cool. So we'd love to get some more just like you
01:24:08
Speaker
You can also, if you want to support us another way, you can go on to patreon.com slash disenfranchpod. And for five bucks a month, you get weekly episodes of our What Are We Watching podcast, where we talk frankly about the art that we are consuming and also just about whatever else pops into our heads in the moment. Whenever Tucker and I, it's usually about food. We've done quite a few diatribes just about food.
01:24:36
Speaker
So if you want to see us in our bridled, uncensored, well, I'm not really censored here, but just in our purest id form, what are we watching behind the paywall? We also have some Patreon-exclusive shows that we do once in a while, Unenfranchised, where we talk about
01:24:56
Speaker
movies that killed off long running franchises. Brian was on, I want to say our second ever episode of that show on Scream 4. Indeed. So I got to talk about wild, wild hot takes about Scream 4 that only people behind the paywall can hear.
01:25:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. Like he said, this is true. So patreon.com slash disenfranch pod, you can get access to all of that. There are just literal days of content behind that paywall for you. You can find me Hi, I'm your host, Stephen Foxworthy. You can find me on Instagram, letterboxed and blue sky at
01:25:42
Speaker
Chewy Walrus. Chewy as the candy bar walrus like the tusked mammal. My absent co host Brett Wright can be found at sus underscore warlock on Instagram letterboxed and blue sky. And Tucker my other absent co host can be found at ice 909
01:26:00
Speaker
on YouTube and Instagram. And he's got another backup Instagram account where he talks about mugs, which is tuck underscore mugs. Always looking for guest submissions of mugs on that channel.
01:26:13
Speaker
send us a picture of your mug and what's in it and tell us a little story about it. And we'll post it. Yeah, or you know, that doesn't have to be a mug could be glassware. Just any kind of drinking drinking. Yeah, any any kind of anything you would drink a beverage out my dad has some cool beer steins. Yeah.
01:26:40
Speaker
Yeah, post one, submit one of those. Tell us a little bit about the piece and what you've got in it and send it on. Yeah, absolutely. Tuck underscore mugs is where you can find that.
01:26:52
Speaker
That is the quickest we've ever done a tough mug spot because Tucker wasn't here to do it. So yeah, this has been the disenfranchised podcast excited for the rest of Arnie April to Austrian Boogaloo. We've got some great, great movies that we're covering this month. So don't touch that. I'm just so glad that makes you guys laugh. I really
01:27:16
Speaker
That just warms every corner of my heart, really. Thank you. Thank you for laughing. I didn't even think it was that funny. I'm just glad you guys are getting a kick out of it. I like it. Love it. I love it. Should we leave it with one more? So we'll be back next week. You got one locked and loaded. I'll toss it to you. Yeah.
01:27:38
Speaker
Right on. All right. So this has been the disenfranchised episode on Commando. I am your host, Stephen Foxworthy, for my absent co-host, Brett Wright and Tucker, and for my very special, very present guests, Brian Kuiper and Michelle Egan. Until next time. Do you leave anything for us, Matrix? Just bodies. Just bodies. So cool.
01:28:09
Speaker
So,