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Meteor Man
162 Plays5 years ago
In celebration of Black History Month, Perry and Derrick discuss The Meteor Man, the first mainstream black superhero movie! Writer/director/actor Robert Townsend’s 1993 superhero kids comedy has kind of faded from memory, but there’s a lot of good in it that deserves a fresh look.
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Transcript
Introduction and Recent Events
00:00:41
Speaker
Where is he? There he is. I'd be glad when he get over his fear of heights. He will, he will.
00:01:07
Speaker
Welcome to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast. I am half of your host, Perry Constantine. And I am the more distinguished other half, Derek Ferguson. How are you doing today, Derek? Oh, I'm doing quite splendidly. Thank you very much. Celebrated a birthday last weekend.
00:01:26
Speaker
yet he took as i was gonna do this whole thing about itself i didn't want to go i didn't want to make a little bit yeah i want to make a little announcement of it and i just want to say that you know this show i've been trying to get some variation of the show together for years and like it died may have like two different attempts before uh... one it was just like scheduling problems we just could not make it work out the other is uh... the other time i made we had some uh...
00:01:56
Speaker
professional uh... concerns that came up between us and that kind of thing but the one thing about this show that i think it really needed was you know that's that certain x factor that you can't really describe and what really brought this show together and why it's why we've been able to you know beat the podcast curse of ten episodes so far and seem to be keep going strong is i knew i needed
00:02:24
Speaker
someone that I could really connect to on this show someone who really kind of Showed me some new things about these movies and who I could also have a good time talking with and this show Would not be possible without this man over here. So I want everybody here to please join me wishing him a happy birthday and many more and if you want to
00:02:48
Speaker
Congratulate him to celebrate him. I urge you go to amazon.com type in Derek Ferguson and buy one of his books It does not matter which one because they're all amazing. So thank you so much buddy and happy birthday
00:03:08
Speaker
Thank you very much.
Origins and Friendship
00:03:10
Speaker
That means a lot coming from you, because as some of you listening to this may know, Perry and I have been friends for longer than either of us would care to remember.
00:03:25
Speaker
I remember him when he was just a snot nose kid aggravating everybody in fan fiction. And I was always sticking up for you. I said, listen, the kid is all right. He's all right. He's cool. He's a pain in the ass, but he's a talented pain in the ass. And also,
00:03:42
Speaker
you had the virtue of a lot of times you were right it was just your delivery you know that's all it was the way you said it but uh well fortunately i you know i'm a little bit older a little bit older now a little bit wiser and still just a massive pain in the ass yeah but you tempered it like you said with you know age i mean with age i mean you know that pain in the acidness
00:04:05
Speaker
you know, gets tempered and you learn how to modify it and direct it to where it's actually needed. Yeah. But, uh, yeah, but you know, uh, if anybody had told me after doing a podcast for seven years, which I'm still amazed that I didn't want for seven years, that I would be back doing one. Uh, I would have laughed myself into a hernia cause as you said, um,
00:04:31
Speaker
Now I didn't know about this podcast curse that you speak of, this 10 episode podcast curse, but I do know that most of the podcasts that I listen to rise and fall on the strength of the interaction between the people that are doing it.
Chemistry and Diverse Opinions
00:04:49
Speaker
And as you said, it's an X factor. It's something that can't be forced. It develops over time. And even though we've never actually met in person, we have spoken enough through this medium and online enough that we have a good knowledge of each other's personality and how we think about certain things. And surprisingly enough, we agree on a whole lot of things that people might not think that we would agree on.
00:05:17
Speaker
Yeah. But also, surprisingly, we disagree on some things that people would think we'd absolutely agree on. Oh, yeah, absolutely. But to me, that's what makes it such a ball game. To me, there is nothing more boring than for me to be interacting with somebody that
00:05:38
Speaker
likes everything the same way I like it or agrees to me about everything and, you know, all this other things. No, no, no. I thrive on talking with people who have other opinions from me, something that has gotten lost in our society, apparently, because if you have a different opinion from somebody else, they're ready to lynch you.
00:05:59
Speaker
Yeah, but no, but I mean I'm having a great time doing this and you know Thank you for inviting me to do this.
Birds of Prey Film Review
00:06:08
Speaker
I am continually surprised Every time I watch one of these movies how much I'm enjoying this because I'm looking at them in a new light
00:06:19
Speaker
in a new fashion simply because I know, okay, well, I have to talk about this thing. Like I know what I'm talking about. So therefore, I'm looking at them in a different way now. And seeing a lot of things in them, I didn't see before. Yeah, exactly. And well, before we get into today's movie, you saw another superhero movie recently, didn't you? Oh, yeah, Birds of Prey. So what did you think? What's like your kind of like overall 100 mile view of it?
00:06:48
Speaker
I went, because, well, what? My birthday was on Saturday. So it came out Friday. So I said to my wife, I said, well, I'm going to go see Birds of Prey. And she said, well, have a good time. No, she's not in a superhero movie. So I went down and, yeah, so I went in, you know, I went and saw it. Surprisingly enough, the theater was pretty crowded for what? I went like to an 11 o'clock show. And the theater was, you know, was fairly crowded.
00:07:18
Speaker
That's good because I hear a lot of people have been saying online that it hasn't been doing as well as expected. Maybe that's hyperbole. I don't know. I haven't actually looked at the numbers. That's heartening to know that it was crowded at 11 o'clock. Well, you know what? I think that people are saying that because
00:07:35
Speaker
And really, I don't know, we have to get away from this thing where just because we see people running around in costumes and stuff like that, that it's automatically a superhero movie. Birds of Prey is actually more of a cracked out crime thriller with people running around in, okay, yeah, they're running around in what you might call costumes, but it's stuff that
00:08:05
Speaker
I don't know, it's hard for me to describe. It's not a superhero movie, it really isn't. Harley Quinn is in it, yeah, but she's not what you would call a superhero. No. She doesn't have superpowers. There's no Joker, there's no Batman, thank God. Although they do get mentioned. Nobody's shy about mention, which is also one thing that I like about it, because I don't like
00:08:34
Speaker
superhero movies that take place in the city like Gotham or you know Metropolis and everybody pretends like they've never heard of Batman or you know the penguin the joke or anything like that you know other characters are mentioned but since they're not important to the story we don't see them there's no reason for us to see them especially since Harley Quinn
00:08:54
Speaker
is breaking away from the Joker. And that's what the movie, you know, that's how it starts out. She's breaking away from the Joker. And then it turns into this crime thriller where she has to find this diamond that leads to this immense fortune held by the Bertinelli mafia crime family. And all of these different characters are running around looking for this diamond that's been stolen by this young pickpocket named Cassandra Cain.
Joker Film Discussion
00:09:23
Speaker
Um, speaking of, uh, birds of prey and, uh, you mentioned the Joker just reminded me that, uh, you know, I just wanted to give a shout out to Joaquin Phoenix for winning, um, his first Oscar for playing the Joker. Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, well, it was kind of like a lock. Yeah. I think most people pretty much say, yeah. Oh, okay. Well, he's going to take it. And, uh, well, I can't say that.
00:09:55
Speaker
I don't know, let me see how I feel about this. I don't know how I feel about this. Of course, everybody's asking, what'd you think about him? Okay, did you think that he deserved the Oscar? Yeah, but then again, I don't know. Did he really deserve to win an Oscar for a movie that's basically Martin Scorsese fan fiction?
00:10:21
Speaker
I mean, that's what my, you know, that's what Tom DJ calls it. And, you know, and I have to admit that, yeah, he's right. Basically, that's what the movie is. It's, you know, it's a brilliant.
00:10:37
Speaker
reimagining of the Joker character, I have to give it to you. Even all that stuff aside, yeah, take all that influence from Taxi Driver and King of Comedy. All that aside, I think his performance was definitely something unique that he brought to that role.
00:10:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, really, out of all of the movies that I had seen, I'd be hard pressed to say, OK, well, somebody else should have got it. Because he was that good. Yeah. So now we have two comic book movies that have won a Best Acting Oscar, and both of them were for the Joker.
00:11:20
Speaker
Yeah, which says something right there, actually. It does. Yeah. So I don't know that that character makes brings out like kind of. Well, in some actors, we're not going to talk about certain ones who were in certain movies and with a few too many tattoos. Oh, so. But let me say something. Go ahead. OK, real quick about that. Jared Lido, because he catches a lot of shit.
00:11:49
Speaker
I mean, you know, for his interpretation of the Joker. And just let me say that I respect him as a creative artist to go where he wants to go, because that's what that's what an actor does.
00:12:02
Speaker
They take a character and they put their own spin on it, which I heartily approve of, because when we see something like the Superman Returns fiasco, where Brandon Routh had to be forced to play Christopher Reeve, and he wasn't, you know, able to play Superman his way. And then when we see him years later,
00:12:26
Speaker
in the crisis thing, and we saw what we could have had. Yeah. I appreciate the fact that different actors want to put their different spin on a character. That being said, I firmly believe that when you go too far away from the core concept of what the character is supposed to be, you've created a new character. And to me, that's what Jared Leto did. Well, also, I think part of the problem, too, is he
00:12:56
Speaker
I think he got too wrapped up and we can talk about this when we get around to Suicide Squad but just in general I think he got way too wrapped up in the publicity about his method acting stunts and he seemed to care more about that than
00:13:11
Speaker
You know, instead of sending used condoms to Margo Roby, maybe he should have tried reading a few more of the comic books. Exactly. He got two, which is something, unfortunately, is something that has infected our society. He got
00:13:26
Speaker
too caught up in the whole social media aspect of it. Yeah, I think that he was wrapped up, as you accurately said, trying to create social media buzz. Right. Instead of, as you say, getting a whole stack of comic books and just sitting down and just reading the comic books and said, oh, OK, well, this is what I'm supposed to be playing. OK. And that being said, you know, the Morbius trailer came out a few weeks ago and he looks pretty good in that. So, you know, fingers crossed. Well, I think that
00:13:56
Speaker
He took a lesson from the backlash he got from Suicide Squad and he said, because yeah, I saw the trailer and I'm not as big a Morbius fan as some other people are, but from what I remember, he looks, you know, pretty accurate, you know, to me. Yeah, same here. And he seems to have dialed it back, dialed it way back. Right.
Batman Casting Reactions
00:14:18
Speaker
So and then the other thing I just wanted to mention Batman related was We saw the first look at Matt Reeves the suit that Robert Pattinson is gonna be wearing
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, wow. Took me by surprise, man. Yeah, yeah. And you know what? The suit itself has got this very heavily armored look. And I didn't realize this until Mike McGee pointed this out on Twitter that the cowl is kind of like more of an old-fashioned cowl from the comics, which was kind of like an interesting mix of the different eras. So it's kind of got like
00:14:53
Speaker
part of like the old comics influence and also part of the Arkham Knight, you know, from the video games influence. Well, again,
00:15:04
Speaker
We see what we've said so many times. He said, you know what? People need to wait until they actually see something before they lose their shit and start complaining about it. Because I remember when the guy was announced that he was going to be playing bad. Oh, boy. Twitter and Facebook lost their collective minds. Oh, this guy can't do it. Now, all of a sudden, now that they've not seen him, everybody's talking about, oh, I can't wait to see the movie now. I can't wait to see the movie. You know.
00:15:31
Speaker
I mean, just because he was in the damn Twilight movies doesn't mean he can't act. Well, this is what I'm saying, you know, and that's what I was saying to other people, you know, wait and wait and give the guy a chance. Let's wait until we actually see something. Plus, you know, let's not forget Mr. Mon made a pretty convincing Batman to begin with and people lost their shit over that. Bingo. I mean, I mean, if there had been OK, if there had been the Internet back then,
00:16:01
Speaker
Forget about people as what people were selling sending telegrams to Warner Brothers. Oh my God. I mean, you'd think the internet did exist back then. I mean, people took the time to write letters about this.
00:16:12
Speaker
Listen, newspapers had editorial op-ed pieces about it. That's how controversial it was. Yeah, that's how controversial it was. And it's also, so this new movie too, it's gonna feature just one last thing, which it's gonna feature Zoe Kravitz playing Catwoman. And I just saw her in Hulu did this TV version of High Fidelity. And I just, yeah, yeah.
00:16:40
Speaker
So they gender swap the character. So Zoe Kravitz is playing John Cusack's character. And they change the location. So instead of Chicago, it's set in your stomping grounds in Brooklyn.
00:16:55
Speaker
And so I just finished watching it last night. And it's a little bit different from the movie, but it's got a lot of the same vibe of it. And she especially is great in it. Just watching her in this, it makes me all the more excited to see her play Catwoman. Yeah, well, it was a movie that you didn't like, but I thought that she was good in it. X-Men, first class. She was in first class. Well, I mean, she was kind of in the background of first class.
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah, but she was good in that, but she was, yeah. You know, and she's been in a couple of other things and she's like one of those actresses, like you said, she's in the background and she doesn't like stand, but everything that she's been in, she's good. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I can't point at her performance and say, okay, well, you know, she sucks, you know, I can't do that. Yeah. So I'm looking for, but yeah, you know, people say, oh, yo, oh, Robert Pattinson. And I said, yeah, so what about, oh, but didn't you see Twilight? I said,
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, kind of, sort of. I didn't pay much to tell you. You know why? Because I wasn't the audience for that movie, which is something a lot of people don't understand. They go see, okay, if you're a middle-aged person, a middle-aged black man like me from Brooklyn,
00:18:06
Speaker
The Twilight movies, you know, I'm not the audience for them. Plus, he did those strategically. Like he didn't even like the movies or the scripts, but he did that because he he knew that would give him a stepping stone to take on bigger projects. And he was right. And he's done a lot more like he's done some pretty character intensive pieces since then, which is something else that we've also discussed here that a lot of these
00:18:34
Speaker
quote unquote fans don't understand that these actors, they are not as in love with the property as you are. You know, they're looking at it from a business standpoint. Okay, well I'll do this movie because it's going to enable me to do two or three other movies that I really want to do. I'll have the financial security to do, you know, these little, you know, these
00:18:59
Speaker
independent movies, these little personal projects. That's the reason why a lot of these actors take these big budget blockbuster superhero CGI movies, because there's other directors. Christopher Nolan only made the Batman trilogy because he wanted to get bigger budgets for his own movies.
00:19:20
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. The only reason that Christopher Nolan was able to make Inception was because he promised Warner Brothers that he'd do Dark Knight Rises after it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, these people are not as in love with these properties as they are. So yeah, so I mean, so I remember vaguely seeing a couple of the Twilight movies, but they didn't make an impression on me because, as I said,
00:19:49
Speaker
You know, all movies, despite what people think now, and I don't know where this came from in the movie-going consciousness, that everybody thinks that every movie they go see is supposed to be made for them, and they're supposed to love it. No, it's not. Not every movie is made for you, and you're not supposed to love every movie because, yeah, because the filmmaker did not make it for you. Filmmakers don't make movies for everybody. Right.
00:20:13
Speaker
Well, that's actually a good segue into today's movie because this was a movie that was made specifically for black kids.
Meteor Man: Pioneering Black Superhero Film
00:20:23
Speaker
And when you look through that lens, it takes on a completely different view. But before we get into that, this choice came from your suggestion that we do a series of movies on Black superheroes to honor Black History Month. And even though we've only got one of these episodes coming out in February, Black History Month should really be longer than the shortest month of the year anyway, so we're gonna go beyond that.
00:20:53
Speaker
Oh, OK. Cool. So you chose the first one. Everybody says that when Black Panther came out, everybody said that it was the first black superhero movie. And other people said, no, it wasn't. Blade was the first black superhero movie. And they were all wrong, because the first black superhero movie is actually a little-known 1970s black exploitation film called A-Bar the Black Superman.
00:21:21
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I knew you were going to bring that up. Have you seen that? I have seen it. And as a matter of fact, I want to watch it again because I think that we should get around to discuss that movie sometime. Yeah. But yeah, but I have seen it. But the first mass produced black superhero film was this film, The Meteor Man.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah, written and directed by Robert Townsend. Exactly, yeah. And his whole thing behind making this movie was he said that, you know, he went to visit his nephew. I think it was his nephew or something like that. And he asked his nephew, you know, what are you going to do for Halloween? Do you want to be Superman or do you want to be Spider-Man? And his nephew said, well, I can't be because they're white.
00:22:12
Speaker
And Townsend thought that that was ridiculous. And he says, that kind of started the journey of me thinking that kids of color need their own superhero. Yeah, and as a matter of fact, you know what? I had heard that story years ago, but I had forgotten it and I didn't remember it until you just
00:22:39
Speaker
you know, related it. And it goes back to when I, you know, like I saw this movie originally during its original theatrical run. As a matter of fact, I was working in Manhattan. It was 1993. Yeah, I was working in Manhattan at the time and I caught it one night after work and I, you know, and I went to see it. And I remember leaving out of the theater because I was really pissed off about the movie because
00:23:09
Speaker
Oh, okay. This is what happened. Okay. We, okay. By 1993, we'd already had a couple of superhero movies. Of course we had Superman, the movie, we had Batman movies and stuff like that. And you know, these were real serious, you know, artistic efforts to present superheroes, you know, in a classic light that, you know, people could be proud of everything like that. And we got media man, which to me,
00:23:37
Speaker
was a comedy, and I was focusing so much on the comedic elements that I totally overlooked the overarching message that Robert Townsend was trying to present. And when I saw it yesterday, after all of these years, and I saw it with a little bit of maturity and not so much arrogance, and I was able to look into it, I see what Townsend was trying to do with this movie.
00:24:07
Speaker
And I've done this movie a disservice over the years, because it's a very, very good movie. It's excellent, as a matter of fact. In fact, I was surprised at how fresh this movie seems. Yeah, that stood out to me too, because when you're thinking about a lot of the stuff that they were tackling in, say, Luke Cage, or they're tackling in Black Lightning, a lot of those same issues, they're cropping up in Meteor, man.
00:24:35
Speaker
Okay, bingo. You hit it right on the head, my friend. That's exactly what I was thinking of when I saw it.
00:24:43
Speaker
There's a lot of that same vibe that's going on here. And like I said, the overarching thing of what Robert Townsend tried, yeah, sure, there's comedic elements that's in it. But even the comedic elements serve to underline a lot of the conventional superhero themes. Like in this movie, one of the things that cracked me up about it was that
00:25:04
Speaker
Media man shows in a way that no other movie, no other superhero movie does. Why a superhero is a secret identity? Yeah, yeah. Because it's like the whole neighborhood gets in on the whole media man thing. And all it does is just make things more difficult for the Robert Townsend character. Also, I just really liked kind of how
00:25:30
Speaker
everyone else is like the the whole kind of reverse there's a lot of reversal of the secret identity thing because in most superhero stories he keeps his identity secret from everybody you know if his if his wife or his family finds out about it they're concerned about him they're worried if he should be doing this but in this one
00:25:50
Speaker
It's his parents who are pushing him to become the superhero. Yeah. I mean, you know, they're overjoyed that he's got superpowers. The father's saying, yeah, well, you're going to get this crack house. And then after that, you're going to get the drug dealers. And then after that, you're going to get the number. And he's looking right away. But I don't know. And his mother, she's busy making a costume with.
00:26:12
Speaker
Before we go any further, I want to point out that his parents is played by Robert Guillaume, who most people would remember for Benson, and Marla Gibbs, who most people remember as the maid from the Jeffersons. But I mean, just let me run down this cast real quick, because this is like a Who's Who's cast.
00:26:33
Speaker
This is an all-star, you could not get all these people in one movie today. You have Eddie Griffin, James Earl Jones, Nancy Wilson, Jennifer Lewis, Robin Guillaume and Marla Gibbs, who I mentioned, Don Cheadle, Wallace Shawn, Bill Cosby, Big Daddy Cade, Biz Warkey, Frank Gorshin. Yeah, Frank Gorshin, that was- Sinbad. Sinbad in such a small role too.
00:27:02
Speaker
But hilarious. He comes in and he does this little crazy bit. And it's got nothing to do with the movie, but it's funny as hell so you don't care. Yeah. Luther Vandross playing a hit man of all things. And to put the icing on the cake.
00:27:17
Speaker
The costume designer for this movie is Ruth Carter, who won the Academy Award for costume design for the overall look period of Black Panther. Oh, really? Okay. So this movie, I mean, like I said, you couldn't put this cast together in a movie now. Oh, did you mention Tiny Lister?
00:27:36
Speaker
Yeah, Tiny Lister. See what I mean? That's how large his cast is. I knew I was going to forget somebody. Yeah, Cypress Hill was in it too. They played the Crips. Yeah, see, there we go. Cypress Hill. Matter of fact, there was a couple of... Oh, I'm not sure if you met John Witherspoon.
00:27:55
Speaker
Yeah, John Witherspoon. Who I remember him from the Wayne Brothers TV show. Yeah. And Friday, he was in those movies. Oh, my God. Pretty much almost everybody, like so many people in this cast then went on to do the Friday movies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. John Witherspoon, a tiny list of David. Yeah. Chris Tucker had, he was the emcee in the mall.
00:28:21
Speaker
That was Chris Tucker? That was Chris Tucker, yeah. You see what I mean? That's how packed this movie is with such talent that I just knew. And I even wrote it down while I was watching the movie. And I said, OK, I know that guy. Oh, wow. He's a new people. Matter of fact, people that I completely forgotten was in this movie because as I said, I haven't seen it since 1990. Really, I haven't seen it since 1993. Same here. I saw it when it.
00:28:48
Speaker
when it hit the Blockbuster. I had comics at the time, and I remember there were so many ads for this thing in all the comics I was reading. In fact, Marvel even did a tie-in series where Meteor Man was in the Marvel Universe. He had crossovers with Spider-Man and Night Thrasher. It was only six issues, but yeah, he was in the Marvel Universe for a time.
00:29:12
Speaker
Well, you know what? This does feel like a Marvel movie. Well, I was watching it, and I said, yeah, you know what? I could easily see this taking place in the MCU. Also, just another thing about Tiny Lister, that guy has got the most ironic nickname of all time. Oh, absolutely. That guy's massive.
00:29:33
Speaker
Yeah, he was a professional wrestler at one time, you know. Oh, really? I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. They called him Zeus. He was in the WWE. That was back in the day when, uh, you know, guys like Hulk Hogan and Hulk Hogan and Roddy, Roddy Piper, you know, when they were popular. Yeah. And yeah. And he had a career as a professional wrestler. As a matter of fact, he was in a movie with Hulk Hogan, uh, where he played the Zeus character. Oh, okay.
00:30:00
Speaker
And Faison Love, who would go on to co-star in The Parenthood with Townsend, was in this as well. Yeah, he's the guy with Robert Townsend. That's when he discovers that he can fly. Right, right. And he's mistaken for a peeping time.
00:30:18
Speaker
I did not recognize Faison Love until I saw his name prop up in the credits. Yeah, same here. I did not recognize him either. This movie is worth watching if for no other reason that you get to see an extraordinary amount of talented people before they hit it big.
00:30:40
Speaker
And you know, I got to wonder, it's like, does Don Cheadle have like a withered old painting in his attic? Because he has not changed in over 20 years. Oh my god, he looks exactly the same. Yeah. That's how come he was like one of the first people that I recognized because he hasn't changed. Oh my god, that's Don Cheadle. What's he doing in here?
00:31:05
Speaker
Yeah. Although, in retrospect, I think giving Bill Cosby the superpower to see through walls is a little bit creepy. Yeah, it's a little bit creepy. And let me say, let me put a little.
00:31:21
Speaker
thing here for you folks, because I know there's going to be some people out there that's going to listen to this. Why are you giving air time? Why are you talking about Bill Cosby? Wait a minute. Bill Cosby is a small part in this movie. He doesn't even say a single line.
00:31:37
Speaker
Thank you. And I'm not going to throw a whole movie made by a whole bunch of talented people on the trash heap because Bill Cosby is in it for like five minutes. Yeah. And plus, you got to remember that this movie was made at a time when Bill Cosby was like America's father.
00:31:56
Speaker
Like, nobody knew any of the shit he was up to back then. So, you know, you gotta put these things in the proper historical context. Like, if I'm positive, if Townsend knew what Cosby was up to, he wouldn't have cast him in this movie.
00:32:10
Speaker
Well, this is what I always say to people when they go on and on about that. I said, listen, you have to put things in there in the historical context. Right. You know, you can't just, you know, you're looking at it now and you say, oh, well, people should have did this and people should have did that. Well, you know what? First of all, there's a lot of things in Hollywood that were going on that were like open secret, but nobody knew about it, especially because they didn't have the Internet back then. Right. And, you know, they didn't have TMZ and Twitter. So a lot of things.
00:32:40
Speaker
Were going on but people had no way of knowing if they actually were true or not Exactly, you know, so again back then now as you so actually pointed I don't know if Townsend knew I
00:32:53
Speaker
Or if anybody know, but from everything I've read about him, I'm pretty sure that if he had known, he wouldn't have had Bill Cosby in the movie. Yeah. But then again, like you said at that time, Bill Cosby was America's dad. Right. So having said that, if for those of you who are listening, if you still have a pride, you think I'm full of shit
Community and Empowerment Themes
00:33:14
Speaker
and everything like that, then you are free to turn this off and go listen to another podcast.
00:33:25
Speaker
Something about this movie, I also noticed there seem to be some parallels with Black Lightning mentioning him, because you got the main character who's a teacher named Jefferson, no less, in both versions. So I mean, apparently Townsend said that he named the character after one of his idols, who was one of his teachers. But still, that's a kind of, I'm not sure if it's 100% coincidence or not, but it's kind of a neat little parallel.
00:33:45
Speaker
Now, um...
00:33:56
Speaker
Well, I think what he wanted to do was that he wanted to have a teacher as the main character because of not only the interaction with that he has with the children, and then he shows his relationship with them. But teachers tend to get kind of denigrated in this country. Oh, yeah.
00:34:19
Speaker
So it is refreshing to see a movie that does have a teacher as a main character and a teacher who is in in real life.
00:34:29
Speaker
a superhero as well as when he puts on the costume and he goes out and he becomes a superhero. So I think that that was the, to me, that was the comment that he was trying to make, that teachers are superheroes, you know, which I approve of. Like I said, I'm looking at this now and looking at all of the subliminal messages that he put in there. And I have to believe that that's one of them.
00:34:50
Speaker
Yeah, also he doesn't fit any sort of stereotypes you would have of black men. He's very non-confrontational. He's very much keeps to himself type of thing. So this movie's breaking a lot of stereotypes that existed at the time and still exist to this day.
00:35:11
Speaker
Yeah, he's not a macho type of guy at all. As a matter of fact, that's a large part of the character arc in this is that he learns how to stand up for himself without being confrontational. Right. Which is something that his character, you know, stays away from, you know, early on in the movie when he runs into Don Cheadle, who is one of the big bosses of this game called Golden Lords. Yeah. And his character's name is Goldilocks.
00:35:41
Speaker
Yeah, they got a terrific look. They wear these seriously sharp black outfits, and they all had their hair dyed blonde. You know what I kept thinking was these guys have watched Demolition Man one too many times. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's why they took the Q Pro. Oh, but yeah, because that's what they look like. They look like, you know, I kept expecting Wesley's knife to show up. I'm just kind of surprised he wasn't in this.
00:36:08
Speaker
And they have, like, the adults who are the Golden Lords. And then they have, like, the junior high school age. And elementary school baby lords. And then, yeah, the elementary school baby lords. It's like these little two foot high bitches running around with blonde hair in these.
00:36:25
Speaker
You know, bad ass black leather out, that's oh my god. I mean, the scene when they confront Jefferson at night and it's like all the baby lords come out of the darkness and he looks like he's about to shit his pants. It's just hilarious. Oh my god, they're a bunch of munchkins and one of them has a tiger on a chain.
00:36:48
Speaker
It's just crazy. And you know what? I love how it's never explained why the leader of the Golden Laws has a tie. He just does. Yeah. And it's just hanging out in the background. Like it just did not even change up or anything. Yeah, it's always in the background. And I, you know, and I love when movies don't take the time to explain everything. Sometimes you just got to go with it. And you said, well, why does he have a tie? He just does. The guy just likes to tie. Why did Tony Montana have a tiger?
00:37:18
Speaker
And I love that they got Frank Gorshin to play play like the head gang lord of all these gangs. Yeah, again. I have to believe that that was intentional because yeah, I found this article here and Robert Townsend said that, you know, he was so happy he could get Frank Gorshin because, you know, the Batman TV show was such a big part of him growing up. Yeah. And you have a part where
00:37:45
Speaker
uh the whole neighborhood you know they're telling Jefferson okay well we want you to do this we want you to do that we want you to do this oh and by the way we're gonna put a phone in your house just like in that tv show so when we have an emergency we can call you yeah i love all those little callbacks and then his mom's reading um comic books to try and get influence for the superhero costume and she's reading iron man at one point she tries to give him a suit of armor
00:38:10
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, oh my God. Yeah, but if you notice, and it's funny that you see a lot of the other characters in this movie reading comic books, except for Jefferson. You've never seen him reading comic books. You know, like Eddie Griffin, we see him reading comic books. We see the kids read, you see the kids reading comic books. Right at the beginning of the movie, there's a kid that he bumps into and he drops a comic book. Right. You know, so yeah, so.
00:38:37
Speaker
Again, that's another little thing that's put in there. I think to try to give us the impression that Jefferson didn't grow up reading the convo, and he's really not all that familiar with the whole superhero, which is why he's not comfortable with it. Right. Because one of the things that cracked me up was that they put in there, okay, he learns how to fly, but he's scared to height. So when he flies, like, about, like, five feet above his crown.
00:39:01
Speaker
The first time he flies out in the costume, they go to the window, they're looking up in the sky like, where is he? They look down and they see him, he's just flying like, just, he's not even up above the cars. He's like entirely. And he just waves at them and he starts flying around and they're like, when is he gonna get over a sphere of heights? And I really think that they passed up a bit at the end of the movie because to me, first of all, to me the movie ends
00:39:27
Speaker
Way too abruptly just like it. There's a reason for that because there was an ending that they had There was another ending for it. And apparently in this other ending the original ending had you know, it showed Jeff more confident standing up and using beat and as a teacher using his role as a teacher to be to better people's lives and
00:39:49
Speaker
And then Michael, his best friend, played by Eddie Griffin, comes to him and says that there's an even bigger piece of the meteor found in Arizona. So they agreed to buy plane tickets so that Jeff can get his powers and become Meteor Man again. And then it ends, and then as the credits come up, Michael's trying to talk him into letting him take some of the power and be his sidekick and throwing out names like Comet Boy and Chocolate Thunder.
00:40:20
Speaker
Eddie Griffin as a superhero, yeah, okay. Cuz as a matter of fact, what part of the movie he does actually steal the costume, but that's only so we can meet chicks. Right, cuz he wants to get, he wants to be interviewed by the reporter he's got a crush on. Yeah. Who's played by Beverly Johnson, I believe. Okay. That name sounds- That's why I was trying to remember where I remember that name from.
00:40:44
Speaker
Yeah, Beverly. She was at that time. She was a pretty famous, you know, black model, you know, like I said, OK, again, another famous person that's in this movie that you look at, you say, wow, you know, oh, I know Beverly Johnson was the doctor.
00:41:05
Speaker
She was the doctor. That's what it says here in the credit list. Oh, OK. Janice, the reporter was Charlayne Woodard. Charlayne Woodard. OK, OK. Now, see, some now see some black folks that are listening, they're not in their heads because, you know, we know because she's been as she she was like a big big movie star, but she was fairly well known at that time.
00:41:30
Speaker
Yeah. But I knew Beverly Johnson was in there, because when I saw her, I said, wait a minute. I know her. And then when I saw the credit, Beverly Johnson, I said, OK, all right. Now, that thing about the ending, because there was a lot of scenes, because this movie was apparently going through a lot of rewrites. And there are a lot of moments in this movie that feel like they don't quite fit together. And that's because of all the rewrites. There were some plot holes that developed. So yeah, I mean, for example, the Fear of Heights thing,
00:41:57
Speaker
he's he's flying around low on the ground and without explanation suddenly he's up at like um the top floor of an apartment building stopping these guys and then flying away with no problem but then like the next scene he's still patrolling flying above the ground
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah, because they're taking the TVs out of this house, and he turns on the TV with telekinesis, because he's got a whole range of superpowers that, you know, comes from the media, which we should say he's called the media man, because it's a green media that comes to Washington, D.C. And I get the impression, because I think that it's an actual life form.
00:42:41
Speaker
Okay, I don't think I don't think it's me out of rock simply because when they hit some it's absorbed into his body Mm-hmm. And actually that's a pretty scary scene. Yeah, I was surprised we're watching this movie cuz yeah Yeah, it's kind of graphic. Oh my god I forgot that and it hits and I mean he's pinned up against the wall and he's screwed and I mean he's really screaming and
00:43:03
Speaker
Right. He's in the hospital. He's got like third degree burns, they say. Yeah, he's horribly burned. Yeah. And the media. Well, there's a shot after the media because it oozes into his body. Like I said, it's a life for him. And then he's on the ground and we see a pair of feet. You know, we find out later that they belong to Bill Cosby, who picks up.
00:43:22
Speaker
a chunk of the media that apparently didn't get absorbed into Jefferson's body. But he's laying there and it's a brief shot, but it's enough that we can see Jefferson's like horribly burned by this. So when he wakes up in the hospital, he has no burns.
00:43:41
Speaker
And he finds out that he's got x-ray vision. He's got, of course, super strength and vulnerability, flight, laser vision. But he's also got telekinesis. He can touch anything. He touches something. He absorbs all that information for like 30 seconds. He uses it in a way, as a teacher myself, he uses it in a way that every teacher wishes they had. Because when he's grading these papers, he just touches them, writes the grade on top.
00:44:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I caught that. That was good. You know, and I guess because now that I'm older, again, I go back to that. Sorry, folks, but that's just how it is. I guess I now I appreciate the humor.
00:44:23
Speaker
of what he was doing because there are a lot of, there's a scene of violence where Jefferson gets gunned down by the Golden Lords that is almost like Sam Peckinpah, you know, directed that thing because, yeah, and I mean, wow, you see the impact of the bullets and he's jerking around and, you know, he's in front of a newsstand, there's papers being, magazines being shredded and stuff like that. So there are,
00:44:50
Speaker
Some scenes are like violence and some serious stuff, but then he tempers that with humor, you know, and- Well, actually the film originally got a PG-13 rating and then Townsend had to appeal it and eventually got it down to a PG rating. Oh, okay.
00:45:07
Speaker
So that doesn't surprise me at all because, yeah, with the level of violence in it and also, like we were saying, the scene of him getting badly burned, I guarantee you those are probably two of the reasons why they gave it a higher rating.
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Because like I said, that scene really took me by surprise. Like I said, I have not seen this movie since 1990. And I completely forgotten that scene. And when I saw it, I sat up a little bit straight in my seat. I said, oh my God. So then he comes out of the, you know, and then he leaves the hospital. And then the rest of the movie is basically about him.
00:45:44
Speaker
his neighbors, of course, find out that he's got superpowers and he gets into the conflict with the Golden Lords or anything like that. But the whole thing about the movie that I really liked was that I think that when you get
00:45:58
Speaker
to the end of the movie what it's about actually is about showing how yeah he's a superhero and everything like that but a superhero really can't save a neighborhood or a community it's got to be the people together working in the neighborhood because at the end of the movie everybody even the bloods and the crips right yeah yeah played by cypress hill and naughty by nature yeah um something else about this is um because
00:46:27
Speaker
You can tell that there were subplots that were dropped, and there's some remnants of it. He mentions early in the movie when him and Michael are talking, and Michael's telling him, you got to get over Stacy. It's been like a year or whatever.
00:46:42
Speaker
And then later, he goes up to this other teacher in the break room. And I double checked. And it turns out her name is Stacy. That's his ex-girlfriend. And that's when Sinbad's character comes in, who plays this overnight black nationalist type. Because before, he says, it's my first black girlfriend.
00:47:06
Speaker
Oh, that was so funny. But he's just in those two scenes. And, you know, because it's Sinbad, and Sinbad was, you know, he was a pretty big deal at the time. Oh, yeah. It makes me wonder if there was this whole other subplot of a love triangle between Jeff and Malik or Bernard, his real name is. His slave name. Sorry, I think there's some love triangle subplot in there that got cut out.
00:47:36
Speaker
Yeah, because like you were saying earlier, which I believe the point you were trying to make before I so rudely cut you off. When he's on the rooftop and he stops the burglars from stealing them, he does his backflip into the sky. And yeah, well, wait a minute. When did he get over his fear of heights? Which to me, if I were going to end the movie,
00:48:00
Speaker
I would have had him doing it like flying over Washington DC to show that he has indeed, you know, gotten over his fear of rights and his embrace being the media man. Absolutely. You know, because like I said, the ending is just like, bam. And I said, wow, wait a minute. That's kind of abrupt, you know. But again, I didn't make the movie and it is what it is. You know, it didn't spoil it for me, but
00:48:24
Speaker
You know, I just wanted like something like what's the what's the best? Oh, you know, like the fly by, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:48:36
Speaker
Well, that's a nice point, too, because the opening credits, it's totally 1978 Superman in those opening credits. Oh, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, you can tell that's what they were doing. It's not a straight knockoff, but it's close enough to invoke that same spirit. You look at it, and if you've seen Superman in the movie, you say, OK, I know what they're doing here. Exactly, yeah. Which is a nice, me, I prefer to call it a homage. People will, you know,
00:49:03
Speaker
People are way too fast. Oh, that's a rip-off. That's a rip-off. That's a rip-off. Which 90% of people that say they have no idea what a rip-off actually is. I can't remember who said this one time, but someone said is, if you tell people where it came from, it's an homage. OK, yeah. And then he's not trying to hide the fact. Everybody, if you're seeing Meteor Man,
00:49:31
Speaker
there is a 99.9999% chance that you have seen Superman the movie. So you know what he's doing there. Exactly. And also here's the thing too. You can tell from this movie, at least I did, you know, and like I said, if I ever see Robert Townsend, and if he's listening to this, which is not so far fetched, you might believe in this day and age. I got to apologize to him because
00:49:59
Speaker
I was looking at this movie yesterday and all throughout the movie, I could see a reverence and a love.
00:50:05
Speaker
for the whole superhero genre. That's in this movie, you know, the guy knows the superheroes and he knows what he was doing. And he knows what he was trying to do with this movie. And he was trying to do something other than the usual. Okay. Guy gets, I mean, this is an origin story, make no mistake, but he was trying to do a little something more than give us. Okay. He, okay. Guy gets superpowers. Guy goes up against super villain. Guy's got to save the world.
00:50:29
Speaker
He's not saving the world in this, that's not what this movie is about. And you know what, it shouldn't be about that.
00:50:39
Speaker
There's that scene where he interrupts the gunfight between the Bloods and the Crips and the police. And he tells them, he's like, everybody put down your guns, I just wanna talk to you, I wanna talk to everybody. And he brings this peace between them, so much so that at the end of the movie, when the Golden Lords attack him and all the rest of the mob comes after them, the Bloods and the Crips and the cops show up to back them up.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? That is a powerful scene where they're having the shoot out and he just flies in there and the bullets are hit and he just says, put down your guns. And that's all he does. He doesn't like use super speed to take all the guns away from them. He asks them to put them down, which in a way it's
00:51:28
Speaker
It's both really uplifting and at the same time, a little bit cheesy. But I like the effort that they're putting in in that scene. Yeah, and like I said, you know what? It's representative of what he's trying to do with this character. Right. And to me, it goes back to what we're talking about in so many episodes where we're talking about the whole idea. So to me, the whole idea of superheroes is
00:51:57
Speaker
Okay, a lot of people think that the whole thing about superhero movies is that, okay, it's the superhero and he's punching out the bad guys. That's only a part of it. The part is, to me, superheroes are supposed to be inspiring. Right. They're characters in stories that are supposed to uplift us and inspire us and want to be better. And to me, that's what the media man character in this movie, that he's inspiring people to be better than they are and want to get along and want to help each other.
00:52:27
Speaker
Which is what he does. And taking this back to Superman, I mean, one of the criticisms of Superman Returns that always irritated me is they say Superman never throws a punch in the movie. And I'm like, well, go back and watch 1978 movie. He never throws a punch in that either. No. No, he never throws a punch in that one. No. And it's because the point of the movie isn't him punching things. The point of Superman isn't beating up other people. It's inspiring people.
00:52:57
Speaker
Yeah, which is why when people, it pisses me off when people always say, well, I don't like Superman. I can't relate to Superman. Well, that's because you're not supposed to relate to him, stupid. You're supposed to be inspired by him. You're supposed to aspire not to be Superman in the sense that you can fly, you can jump over tall buildings and bend steel in your bare hands, but you are aspired to the morals and values that he holds.
00:53:26
Speaker
that's what Superman and that's what a lot of this movie is about. The Jefferson character has a lot of morals and values and through his like one of his major acts that's in the movie is that he takes this old
00:53:42
Speaker
this old abandoned yard. It's got like rusted cars and broken down. This was the scene I really liked. And I think it even worked better than the scene with him making peace between the gangs because go ahead. Anyway, sorry, just interrupting you.
00:53:58
Speaker
No, no, go ahead. You take them all. So what I'm saying is, uh, but he, like you were saying, you know, he goes to this, he cleans up all of the, the, the trash, all of these abandoned cars and you know, all of this junk from this field and he creates a community garden with, with his powers and it's, and we're, we're talking like not regular, not a regular garden. We're talking like giant apples and pumpkins and shit.
00:54:28
Speaker
Right. Exactly. Now again, he gets superpowers and the whole community. Okay. Their whole thing is that they want him to start punching our people. Well, we want you to bust up the crack houses and get rid of the, you know, the process and then that, but his concern is to feed people.
00:54:44
Speaker
That's his first major act. His first thing is he wants to protect the neighborhood, and that's what he's doing in a different kind of way. And I love that scene because, yeah, a guy who has superpowers, who wants to protect his community, what better way to do it, not by just punching people, but by using the powers in a way that would benefit the whole community?
00:55:05
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. To me, that's the whole hook right there. It's not, okay, well, I got to put it on the costume and I got to go out and I got to fight crime. No, he's thinking about, okay, how best can I help the commit? Well, people need to eat, first of all. Feed, so he feeds the people. To me, that's a very powerful scene. And yeah, like you said, it's not as, okay, well, you know what? I'm going to go with you. Yeah.
00:55:30
Speaker
When you put the two scenes side by side, yeah, to me, that's a little more powerful and more meaningful than the one where he stops the gunfight, much as I like that scene too. Matter of fact, I like any scene that has him doing anything other than punching people, which we do get to at the end when he has the fight with the leader of the Golden Lord, who also gets superpowers.
00:55:54
Speaker
Which is such a bizarre fight. I found myself loving it and also rolling my eyes at it at the same time. Yeah, when they touch the book that has the runway. The thing is, he touches the book with Bruce Lee's fighting guide, which I thought was kind of weird because I'm just like, you've
00:56:16
Speaker
You've got superpowers already, like these other guys aren't going to pose a threat to you. But he's wasting all the martial arts time fighting these guys. But then he tries to touch the book again and he ends up grabbing the modeling book, gives it to the gang leader, and then they start doing this model off together.
00:56:36
Speaker
Oh yeah, they start voguing and everything like that. Yeah, that's when I did the facepalm and said, oh lord, okay. And then I said, okay, that scene I remember.
00:56:51
Speaker
Now, don't get me wrong. I was laughing my ass off during that scene, though. Oh, I laughed, too. I laughed, yeah. But you know what? Again, I guess Robin Townsend wanted to do something different rather than just the two guys with superpowers just punching each other. Yeah. I think he just wanted to break it up and do something. And on that basis, because since I have been so entertained by that point, I just say, you know what? I'm just going to go with it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:21
Speaker
But the powers, though, they're they're so vaguely defined in this movie. And again, that's another thing that was that was cut out, was like explaining exactly what powers he had. So like he's doing things. He's like pulling powers out of nowhere, basically. Well, yeah. Well, basically, this is a case of he has whatever superpower we need to to.
00:57:45
Speaker
You know, keep the plot moving at this point, like in the shopping mall where Eddie Griffin has, you know, he's in the shopping mall and the golden Lords, you know, they see him on the TV being interviewed by the, you know, by the reporter he wants to get a date with. So they go there to kill him. Cause they think that he's the media man and Robert Townsend rushes there.
00:58:09
Speaker
And he goes and he uses, you know, telekinesis, I mean, no disable. Yeah. Now, now, OK, we know that the Bill Cosby character. He found out he's got telekinesis because we see him making a cup of coffee for himself. But how did Robert Townsend, how did his character find out he had telekinesis? Right.
00:58:32
Speaker
And also being able to control TV signals and stuff like that. The powers are pretty much, like you said, it's basically the 66th Batman's utility belt. Anything he needs for the story is in that belt. Right, exactly. It starts from Mommy. There's an ex-character.
00:58:55
Speaker
You probably more familiar with this cuz you're more into the x-men than I am but there is one character that. His superpower is that he can his mutant power is that he cuts himself and oxygenates his blood. Oh extreme yeah. Now what's the superpower now it's yeah like his. I can't like his blood it when he cuts himself his blood it's like.
00:59:25
Speaker
become turned into fire or something like that it's it was a the nineties were a weird time for comics okay now let me ask you something because you're an intelligent man how in the hell do you discover you have a superpower like that i don't know i don't know okay oh okay again well okay bringing it back to meteor man there was some abilities he has in this
00:59:49
Speaker
movie. Like you said, it's like Batman's utility belt. Well, how did he find out he had, you know, certain superpowers that he has? Okay. I understand how he figured out that he could talk to dogs because the dog is talking to him and he said, Oh, wow. Well, I could talk to my dog, which is kind of cute after all.
01:00:06
Speaker
that he could, because I know dog lovers like to think that they can talk to their dogs and understand their dogs and he actually does. It was kind of interesting because, you know, his dog can clearly understand him when he speaks English, but he's still talking to his dog by barking. Yeah, exactly.
01:00:27
Speaker
He talked to, so, yeah, but, you know, like the laser vision and the telekinesis and, you know, there was some, okay, the super strength. I understand how you figure that out because the golden laws, they attack his father, who they already beat. They beat him up and they put him in the hospital. So the poor man comes home and they show up again to beat him up again. He said, oh, you got out the hospital too soon. We got to put you back in the hospital.
01:00:51
Speaker
So, Jefferson grabs two of them and just throws them across the street, and that's how he finds out he's got super straight. Okay, fine. When they come after him for revenge, he jumps out of the way of the car, and he finds out he can fly. Right. Okay, I got it. How do you find out you have telekinesis, though? Yeah, yeah. If you don't even know that you have it. If they had a scene
01:01:14
Speaker
Like they usually do in, in a lot of superhero movies where, you know, like, okay, the superhero and his best friend, they're trying to figure out what powers he have. So they, you know, it's okay. We'll do this and do that.
01:01:27
Speaker
And it goes back to what you were saying that you think that there was a lot of subplots that were cut out. I get the feeling that maybe that there was a scene in there with him and Eddie Griffith, which is why I think Eddie Griffith is a is a science teacher. I agree, because he comes up with the explanation about why his powers are fading. Bingo. Yeah. So I get the feeling that there was some other scenes in there where they were, you know, trying to figure out what it is that he could do.
01:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, and the whole the powers fading thing it struck me as a little bit contrived like that was another thing that was used just for plot device because he He reabsorbed part of this meteor at the end and then almost instantly He goes from being very powerful and then could coincidentally right after all the bad guys are done Then he has the power to heal the dog then he loses the power to heal the dog Yeah, very yeah, it's very inconsistent
01:02:23
Speaker
Which to me, I think that the whole point of him absorbing the meteor meant that, well, he absorbed the power, so he's got it in him. That's the thing, because Michael tells him that the meteor changed your cellular structure, so you need to rest longer to recharge.
01:02:43
Speaker
But that, that will, so the idea there is that if he just takes a week off and rests, that his powers would recharge. But that whole thing is dropped and it's implied that when his powers fade, that's it, they're gone. Yeah.
01:03:00
Speaker
And, um, not to mention that because there's another scene where, um, it's the scene where, you know, he's at the meeting and the neighborhood is all telling them, yeah, you know, you're going to say the neighborhood. We want you to do this. We want you to do that. And the guy takes the Polaroid picture and he looks at the picture and he doesn't see Jefferson. He sees just like a green.
01:03:21
Speaker
man-shaped figure dressed in his clothes there. Oh, I didn't even realize that. I didn't even notice that. Which to me kind of indicated, as I said, see, my theory is that the media was actually a life form that is now living inside of him.
01:03:38
Speaker
And that's what's giving him the power. They're living in some kind of symbiotic, former relationship. And the guy took the picture and he looks at it and he said, wow. And he's just seen this green man shaped form wearing Jefferson's clothes, which to me indicated that he had absorbed it. So he couldn't lose the picture.
01:03:57
Speaker
He couldn't lose the powers because it's part of him now. But again, in fact what we were saying earlier, the inconsistency of this movie and yeah, the more I'm talking to you, and thank you sir, the more I'm convinced that yeah, there was a lot of this movie that was chopped out that would explain some of this stuff. Also like Bill Cosby's whole character in that movie, he's basically just a deus ex machina. He comes in at the end just to save the day.
01:04:23
Speaker
He doesn't really do anything else. I remember when I was a kid watching this movie, because I watched the Cosby Show growing up. Bill Cosby was one of the reasons why I wanted to see this movie. I'm like, oh, it's a superhero movie and Bill Cosby's in it. I want to watch this. I was disappointed that he has such a small part and the only thing he does is
01:04:48
Speaker
He, he barks and commands some dogs and then he gives, and then he loses the rock at the end and that's it. Yeah. I have to think that the only reason why he's in this movie is because Robert Townsend's, you know,
01:05:06
Speaker
maybe he had some time off and stuff like that and Robert Townsend asked him. That's what I think too. Yeah, and he just stuck them in there because there's no real reason for him to be in this movie. No. This character, there's no real reason for him to be in there. Other than the fact that, okay, as you say, you're going to say, wow, Bill Cosby's in the movie, you know? I mean, not only is he in the movie, but he gets top billing. His picture's on the cover.
01:05:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Well, like James Earl Jones. There's no reason, there's no, James Earl Jones plays this goofy guy that every time we see him, he's a bald guy that's got another hair piece. And you know, that's it. Yeah. Although I did love the idea of James Earl Jones being like,
01:05:49
Speaker
you know, this guy who's got like such this commanding, confident voice and he's, he's trying on different ways and talking about getting on Soul Train. Yeah. Yeah. And he's very insecure where, you know, he's always trying to talk to women, but he's very insecure. Yeah, you're right. It's a joke that the guy with this big, powerful command voice and he's a big guy. Yeah. Yeah. You know, he's insecure, you know, he's not sure of himself, but again, you get the feeling that
01:06:19
Speaker
There was a lot of people that Robert Townsend got for this movie and because they had time and you know Robert Townsend everybody likes him and such a likable guy that they just agreed to be in this movie. Like Wallace Shawn has what amounts to a cameo in this movie. That's right yeah I almost forgot he was in this.
01:06:36
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I did forget about it. I mean, he would have seen it like I like just between seeing it like I saw it like two nights ago and now talking about it. Like I had forgotten he was in it. Yeah. Yeah. Because he's only in there for like maybe two minutes. Yeah. I mean, this is a role that he, you know, came in and I'm pretty sure just did in one day. Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely.
01:06:58
Speaker
You know, the woman that plays the principal, Nancy Wilson, the singer. She's in the movie for like maybe about like five minutes tops. Maxine Waters, cameo. She's on the cover of Jet. Yeah.
01:07:17
Speaker
We, we can consider that a cameo. Yeah. I think there's a lot of people that he got, and I have to believe that they're just in the movie because they had a couple of days in their schedule and Robert Townsend said, listen, can you come down for a couple of days and you know, do this thing and do that? And they say, yeah, sure. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And they did it because there's really no reason for their part. Luther Vandross, Luther Vandross was in the movie for like five, again,
01:07:43
Speaker
He doesn't say a word through the whole movie. He just shows up and looks menacing for about five minutes. And that's it. Yeah. I mean, Frank Worshen, you know, he just comes in and he just yells a bunch and then he's done. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He has what? Three scenes where he just basically he just comes in, he walks into a room, he yells at the people in the room and walks out. Yeah. Yeah. That's all he does.
01:08:11
Speaker
but he looks great period. Yeah, yeah.
01:08:16
Speaker
But yeah, so I mean, there are problems with the movie. It's obviously that it was kind of patched together. Oh, but you know what? Surprisingly, I'm looking at this movie and I'm looking at the suit he's wearing. And with the exception of the weird bulging on the arms, the costume's not bad. No, it's not. It's not. Yeah, you would have to remove, like you said,
01:08:48
Speaker
and look like they're doing their own plays.
01:08:50
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't mind them so much on the legs, but on the arms, it looks particularly noticeable. But on the chest and on the abs, those look fine. It's got like this kind of armored look to it, which if you view it as more of like an armored sculpted type of thing, it works a lot better than if you're trying to view it as those are Robert Townsend's muscles underneath, which is I think what they were trying to do, because when Eddie Griffin wears it, it looks completely different.
01:09:20
Speaker
Oh yeah, well Eddie Griffin is like a foot shorter. So they had to make another costume for him because it's very noticeable when they stand side by side that Robert Townsend is considerably. So who is not a tall guy by the stretch of the imagination?
01:09:38
Speaker
Excuse me, I think he, you know, he's something like a foot taller than, you know, Eddie Griffin. Yeah. You know, but yeah, but especially given today's technology, if I, again, Robert, if you're listening to this or if anybody knows Robert Townsend, pass on my suggestion. I actually would take this movie, do a little tweaking of the special effects and the suit with CGI and re-release this movie. Yeah.
01:10:06
Speaker
I really would, re-release it. Because this movie is very beloved in the black community by people who were wiser than me who saw what this movie actually was instead of what they wanted it to be. Because I know a lot of people tell me that when they were growing up, they saw this movie and they fell in love with it. And you know, when they had kids
01:10:30
Speaker
they pass them on to their kids, you know, and say, oh, well, you got to watch this. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the whole thing. He was trying to do this movie because he wanted to do so. There's this great article that I think we probably shared it in the group at some point, but it's it's from Shadow and Act and it's Robert Townsend's The Meteor Man is a valuable outlier in the superhero genre. And at the end of the article, there's this little bit where
01:10:58
Speaker
James Pappas, who's an associate professor of transnational studies at the University of Buffalo. He says that he doesn't believe superhero films are efficient tools for solving the issues that confront black society. Because the idea of a black mythic hero translates into a cathartic to replace the real heroes who are hardworking African Americans. What we need is exposure to real people with real stories.
01:11:21
Speaker
But what Townsend said to this is, you know, we have to teach the kids at a very young age what it means to get involved, what it means to fight back, what it means to have a voice. You can't always hit them over the head. You can't have kids who are seven years old watching a Black Panther documentary. And, you know, obviously not the superhero, but the political group. So you educate them with little honey and sugar. We have a role, so who is to look and say this is the only way?
01:11:48
Speaker
and he's like when you make a movie you use what you have at the time and there's only so much knowledge that you know or you think you know and i just accept that adventure uh... and he he did a really good job of this movie i mean that it's he's bringing a very positive message to to black kids with this movie and like we said you know this is clearly a movie that's meant for kids like when you look at it through that lens you understand a lot of things like that that fight we were talking about at the end where
01:12:16
Speaker
They're voguing and everything, or when he ties up the kids with their pants and all that kind of stuff. If that were a superhero movie made for a more general audience, like one of the MCU movies or something like that, we'd be rolling our eyes at it, and rightfully so. But in a kids movie, you can get away with that kind of stuff a lot easier.
01:12:39
Speaker
Right. Exactly. And you have stuff like at the end of the movie when, you know, OK, Jefferson, he's having a fight with the Golden Lords and the whole neighborhood is coming together in various ways. And they have the James Jones character. He takes off the wig.
01:12:55
Speaker
And he uses one of his records, and it's been established that his apartment is basically a warehouse for albums and stuff like that. Because Jefferson says, well, I'll trade you so and so for this and that. And he says, nah, he said, listen, I'd rather cut off my left hand. Yeah, yeah. His record collection is priceless.
01:13:19
Speaker
Like part of it was like cringing when he was throwing the records. I'm like, dude, no, but on the other side, I understand what they're trying to do with that. He's using the most, he's willing to give up the most important thing he has to stand up for his neighborhood. Right, exactly. Which is a powerful, again, we go back to the point of messages. This message is all in this movie, but Robert Townsend, like you so accurately point out, he's not beating you over the head with them.
01:13:46
Speaker
You know, so we see that year that he stopped wearing these wings because he's ready to be himself and to use, like you said, his most treasured possessions. He's willing to give it up to, you know, preserve his neighborhood and help out his community and, you know, save his people. And the people come running out of their houses. A woman comes out. She's got two two skillets.
01:14:11
Speaker
And they've got rooms and everything, and Bill Cosby, he sticks the dogs on him and everything like that. And one lady, she's throwing potatoes from her apartment window. Yeah, so it's a movie about, yeah, neighborhoods coming together, and all of the people that live in their community. Again, they're no longer relying on this one man to save them. They're saving themselves.
01:14:37
Speaker
Right, which is something he brings up when they're talking about, they're basically scapegoating him for the Golden Lords, you know, retaliating, and never acknowledging the fact that they were the ones who pushed him into this in the first place.
01:14:54
Speaker
But to his credit, when Jeff calls them out on this, he says, look, I'll leave. I didn't want to cause any trouble in the community. I'm sorry all this happened. He never blames them. He just says, I'm disappointed that you're not standing up.
01:15:12
Speaker
And and if I can pontificate for a minute, just go back and touch on something that you said when you were talking about, you know, we're talking about messages, stuff like that. You were quoting that professor that was saying, well, black people don't, you know, but you don't need superheroes. And, you know, but there's a thing that we got in the black community. I'm going to I'm going to catch you for this. But no, go for it. Go for it.
Black Representation in Superheroes
01:15:41
Speaker
We're a little bit too obsessed with forcing reality down the throat of our children.
01:15:49
Speaker
And I get this a lot because I will talk to people and I'll tell them I'm a writer and everything like that. And they ask me, well, what are you writing? And I say, oh, God, here it goes. And I tell them what I write. And they said, well, that's really nice, but why don't you write something educational? That's what our kids, our kids need education. They don't need that. There's too much fantasy stuff in this world anyway. They need something educational.
01:16:13
Speaker
Children need a healthy fantasy life. Black children especially, even more than white children need a healthy fantasy life. You think about one of the reasons that white privilege even exists. One of the reasons that white people, like white men especially, have more confidence than probably any other group is because we grow up with all these heroes who are white.
01:16:40
Speaker
and who don't lose, who don't lose, right? And so, you know, a white guy can see himself being Batman, can see himself being Superman, can see himself being Spider-Man. So he can see himself being all these superheroes. So of course it's a small jump to go from that to say, well, of course I can be a lawyer. Of course I can be a doctor.
01:17:03
Speaker
Exactly, exactly my point, you know, which is what, listen, my whole writing career is based on the fact that when I was a kid, I watched James Bond movies, I mean, you know, with my father-in-law and I watched, you know, all of these, you know, great cowboy characters and, you know, like Hop along Cassidy.
01:17:23
Speaker
You know, who else? You know, the guy with the mask. I mean, you know, the Lone Ranger. And I asked my father, well, how come there isn't a black James Bond? How come there isn't a black Lone Ranger? And my father said, well, when you get to be a writer, he said, you just have to write one.
01:17:38
Speaker
It's just as simple because yeah, because I wonder why I couldn't go to the movies and see a black James Bond. Not that I got anything against white James Bond people. I love James Bond as Perry knows. I love anybody. No, I love him. But yeah, but to me,
01:17:55
Speaker
inflicting reality on kids 24 hours a day. I know better than a lot of people that it's a hard world and you have to learn how to live in a hard world, but having a healthy fantasy life helps you to deal with that world.
01:18:16
Speaker
Kids, one of the ways kids learn is through creativity, is through imagination. Like, that's part of their development process. So if you're, you know, like Townsend said, you can't sit a bunch of seven-year-olds down and make them watch a documentary about the Black Panther movement. They're not gonna sit still for that.
01:18:33
Speaker
They're not going to understand what the hell is going on. But you give them a black superhero, then they're going to feel inspired seeing someone who looks like them. When Halloween comes around, they're going to be excited to be able to dress up as the Falcon or dress up as Black Panther or dress up as Meteor Man.
01:18:50
Speaker
Yeah exactly because you know they got their little white friends you know and on Halloween they're dressing up as Superman and you know and they're dressing up as Wonder Woman and yeah you will have people out there that say well you know they can dress up like Superman too.
01:19:07
Speaker
Folks, you're missing the point. If you say that. You know, I understand what people mean when they say they mean. Well, I understand. I get it. But you're missing the point. Well, I mean, you've heard about this this black cosplayer who played who cosplays as as Batman, right?
01:19:24
Speaker
Yeah. OK, so for those of you who don't know this, I'm sorry, I can't remember the gentleman's name. So if anyone knows it, please go ahead and post it in the in the group. But so he's a he's a black cosplayer and he loves to cosplay Batman. Batman is his favorite character and he goes all out like this is like a professionally designed costume. And what do you think? Yeah. Yeah. And I don't remember his name either, but I know who you're talking about.
01:19:51
Speaker
Right. And he tells this story about how when he goes to conventions and he has these little black kids who come up to him and they're like, are you really Batman? And they're like, is Batman really black? And he's like, of course Batman can be black. And these kids are so moved by that and so inspired by that. And, you know,
01:20:08
Speaker
You can't imagine like how important that is. So not only, yeah, of course, you know, kids, black kids should be able to dress up as their favorite superheroes, even if that superhero is white, but that's not the point. It's like you said, like having that experience, seeing those characters up on the screen and then being able to dress up like those characters, feeling like they're one of you, like that's enormous for a kid's self-confidence.
01:20:38
Speaker
And let me clarify something that a lot of people always take me to task for whenever this type of conversation come up when it's, oh, well, Batman should be black.
01:20:52
Speaker
I said, yeah, absolutely. Batman. Yeah, Batman can be black. OK, well, a black Bruce Wayne is put the brakes on. No, no black Bruce Wayne. Well, I can't. I can't. Bruce Wayne can't be black because he's Bruce Wayne. You can have a black man to have. And he becomes Batman. He takes over the Batman identity because that's a different thing. But Bruce Wayne is his own character. Just say Bruce Wayne, just giving him a tan and say, OK, Bruce Wayne now is black.
01:21:20
Speaker
Also, it doesn't work for Mark Bernardin, who co-host Fat Man Beyond with Kevin Smith. He's a black writer. He's the one who came up in an indirect way, came up with the idea of Miles Morales, because he wrote this article when they were
01:21:41
Speaker
when they were going to reboot the Spider-Man movies with Amazing Spider-Man, he wrote this article saying that there's no reason why Spider-Man can't be black, because he's a middle-class kid from Queens. In fact, his parents are dead. He's being raised by his aunt and uncle. And in fact, these days, that story is probably more similar to a lot of black people than it is to a lot of white people who live in Queens.
01:22:07
Speaker
So he wrote this article about that. And someone said to him, well, what about Batman? He said, no, Batman doesn't work for Batman. It doesn't work for Bruce Wayne because Bruce Wayne is the product of several generations of accumulated wealth. You're right. And it's like he's the symbol of inherited wealth in
Spider-Man's Universal Appeal
01:22:29
Speaker
America. And you can't, that's sad to say, but that story doesn't work as well with a black man.
01:22:38
Speaker
Well, not with a black Bruce Wayne. Right, with a black Bruce Wayne. That's what I was saying specifically. Yeah, but you're right. If you have another, like a few years, several years back, Stan Lee was released from like his exclusivity with Marvel. And so DC went to him and they said, how would you like to do some DC work? And so they gave him this line of like one shots. It was called, just imagine Stan Lee creating XDC hero. So he did a Batman one. Oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah.
01:23:08
Speaker
And his Batman was a black guy. Yeah. But it wasn't Bruce Wayne. His name was, I can't remember what his name was, but Wayne was actually his first name. But it was a whole different backstory to the character than what the Bruce Wayne story was.
01:23:22
Speaker
Right, exactly. I mean, one of the things about Spider-Man, going back to, one of the appeals of Spider-Man, and I'm not a huge Spider-Man fan, but this is one of the major things that I always loved about Spider-Man. Because Spider-Man had that full body costume and you couldn't tell what he was, he was such a New York hero because every New Yorker could imagine that that was him under that mask. So if you were an Asian kid, you could imagine Spider-Man was Asian.
01:23:50
Speaker
If you were a Puerto Rican, you could imagine Spider-Man was poor because you didn't know. Plus, even when you look at him under the mask, even though he's a white guy, his story, his socioeconomic background, his status in the world, all of that, that's a very universal story that he has. Yeah. Yeah. So anybody who looked at Spider-Man couldn't imagine that, okay, well,
01:24:17
Speaker
OK, well, maybe he's one of us. Which is why I always thought that Spider-Man was so beloved. But New York was just fickle back then, too, because J.J.O. to James said they read the day, but they say, oh, it's Spider-Man as a crook. Yeah, that's Spider-Man as a crook.
01:24:33
Speaker
You know, which is why I love that scene, which is probably my favorite Spider-Man movie, although I haven't seen Far From Home yet. I recorded it the other day. I got to watch it. But the scene is Spider-Man 2, where he saves the train and then the people, they pick him up.
01:24:51
Speaker
and they carry him in the training and they give him back a mask. I always loved that scene. Because to me, that says to me how New York feels about, how they really feel about Spider-Man. He's a very New York. Every one of these movies has not only the Raimi films, but also the Mark Webb films. They have that New York loves Spider-Man movement. And maybe it's not because I'm not from New York, but those moments always ring a little bit heavy-handed to me.
01:25:22
Speaker
Interesting. Well, like you say, you're not from New York. Right. So maybe that's why. Yeah. But yeah, I've always. Or maybe I'm just too cynical. Well.
01:25:33
Speaker
No. Oh, because yeah, because you know what? I think that you really do have to be from New York to appreciate that New York vibe and how New Yorkers feel about Spider-Man because to me, he's always been like very much when he says, which is why I don't really go for him being with the Avengers and going into outer space and all that kind of stuff.
01:25:54
Speaker
Because there's a reason why he's known as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Right. That's why I love that scene at the end of Homecoming when he tells, he refuses the offer to join the Avengers. I'm like, to me, that's Spider-Man. He knows that he's got a community to protect. He knows that he needs to put his neighborhood first and focus on them because he doesn't want to lose sight of the little guy.
01:26:17
Speaker
Yeah, there's there was an issue of the Avengers years ago where because I remember it was some event they had going on. Spider-Man, he had disappeared. So the Avengers, they were looking for him and stuff. And one of the Avengers, I think it was Wonder Man or somebody like that. They were saying, well, why are we putting this much effort in the finding? You know, Spider-Man, by the way, and Iron Man says them because Iron Man. OK, because Spider-Man, if he's not out there on the street doing what he's doing,
01:26:47
Speaker
keeping down neighborhood crime, then we got to do it. Yeah. And we won't be able to look out for Thanos or Dr. Doom or something, which is what we're supposed to be doing. Exactly. Right. So guys like Daredevil and Spider-Man and Luke Cage and everything like that, that's why I, and people say, oh, what? You don't think they're worthy to join the event? That's got nothing to do with it. What's got to do with it is that they have a purpose. They have a place. Exactly.
01:27:16
Speaker
And they understand that, OK, this is where I could do the most good, which folks. Yeah, we go back to media, man, which is why, again, I like this movie so much in that he realizes that this is his place, his neighborhood. Right. You know, never.
01:27:32
Speaker
Never once do we hear about him thinking about going out and, you know, removing all the nuclear missiles in the world or, you know, doing all this other stuff that we traditionally associate with superheroes or saving the world, anything like that. He's concerned with taking care of his neighborhood and making sure that the people that live in his community are safe, which to me is always going to be a very powerful potent message, no matter who you are. Yeah, yeah.
01:28:02
Speaker
Alright, do we have anything else to touch on about Meteor Man? Is there any other, cause I think I pretty much said everything I could think of. Is there anything else you wanted to mention about it?
01:28:11
Speaker
uh only that if you haven't yet seen media man and i would like to just mention that this movie has had a cult following for years because even while it wasn't a hit in movie theaters you said you saw it on blockbuster yeah yeah because i'd seen ads for it and then in comic books and so then when i was in blockbuster one day i saw it on the shelf and so i rented it and
01:28:34
Speaker
So yeah, and I saw it when I was a little kid and I remember at the time being a little bit disappointed in it. And I think it's because I just didn't really understand. I wasn't like, you know, like you were saying at the beginning of the episode, there are some movies that just aren't meant for you. And even though I was a kid, I wasn't a black kid. This movie was not for me. And right, but now looking at it.
01:28:54
Speaker
after, you know, having spoken with lots of black people, after knowing more about their experiences through listening to them, through reading about them. Looking back on this movie, I can really appreciate what Townsend was trying to do with it.
01:29:10
Speaker
Yeah, same here. You know, I'm black and I had to grow up a little to appreciate what he's trying to do with this movie. But it stayed alive all of these years because it became, even though it didn't do too good in the movie theaters, it became like a hit when it went to a home video and repeated showings, of course, on cable, like HBO and, I mean, you know, whatever. So it's still a lot, every once in a while I do see it'll pop up, you know.
01:29:37
Speaker
And of
Meteor Man's Cultural Legacy
01:29:39
Speaker
course, you can rent it by the DVD. So it stayed alive all these years. And of course, like I said, people passed it down to their kids. So the movie has enjoyed a cult popularity all of these years, and quite deservedly so, I think.
01:29:58
Speaker
And you know what, that's another thing. So if Townsend is listening to this or anyone who has some say, get this movie on a streaming service, because we had to go through hell to try to find the copies of it, because it's not available anywhere. Like you can't even rent it on iTunes or Amazon. Nah, nah. And it's available on DVD, but the DVD is like some ridiculous
01:30:23
Speaker
price and i said you know what i wasn't willing to pay that much for it if it had been less than 20 bucks out of spring for it but which i think means the dvd is out of print so you know whoever owns the rights of this movie get it on a streaming service put it i mean yeah please yeah i mean jeez i i hope it's disney because disney put it on disney plus because it it it's a movie that more people should see
01:30:49
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. I mean, if they come out with it, you know what, even if they came out with like a decent Blu-ray with like extras and deleted scenes, something like that, yeah, I'd spring for that. Yeah, and I think they actually have material to do that stuff. Plus, you look at these actors, like, so many of the actors who are in this movie, you know, Robert Townsend, Don Cheadle, who's gone on to have a career as a superhero movie actor now,
01:31:14
Speaker
you know bring those guys back and you know we have them do a retrospective on this movie because i think that would be really i would love to see that i would love to see something like that absolutely i would love for him to get all of them together do like a round table you know discussion with you know the actors that was it yeah and you know do all yeah i definitely love that because you know like we're saying the beginning of the episode
01:31:38
Speaker
when people talk about black superhero movies everyone thinks the blade or black panther which even of those like steel came out before blade which was uh less said about that the better oh we don't talk about steel but also spawn too which also less said about it the better we don't talk we don't talk about smart move keep moving that the senior
01:32:04
Speaker
Yeah, the first one was actually ABAR, the first black Superman. But then the first big studio superhero movie was The Meteor Man. And it's been kind of lost to history and that's a shame because there is a lot of good in this movie. It definitely is. And yeah, it's hard as hell to find.
01:32:23
Speaker
And actually I'm going to, matter of fact, cause I was talking to my wife about this last night, after I saw that she said, well, you should email whoever has the rights to it. She said, or even email Robert Townsend or Twitter him. And you know, I said, damn, she said, yeah, she said, you're on the internet all the time anyway, you do some good. I said, yeah, you, she said find out and you know,
01:32:49
Speaker
So I said, well, you know, maybe I'll do that. She said, don't maybe just go ahead and do it. So so listen, folks, if maybe we start an email campaign and somebody got to get some interest going, we can get this movie on a streaming service or even better get a Blu-ray.
01:33:05
Speaker
Yeah, because that would be awesome. It would be awesome to see some of those voices come back and be able to talk about the experiences making this movie. And even people who weren't involved, but people who were influenced by it. Because you look at directors like Ryan Coogler, who made an amazing black superhero movie. He took it. I guarantee you, there are some black directors out there, some black actors, who were influenced by this movie growing up.
Future Episodes and Closing Remarks
01:33:32
Speaker
And I would love to hear them talk about it.
01:33:35
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. And like I said, Ruth Carter, who won the Academy Award for the costume designed for Black Panther. I would love to hear what, you know, her talk about, you know, working on this movie. Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to hear her talk about that.
01:33:51
Speaker
All right, so I think that about does it. So now next week or next episode, I do like this idea of spotlighting black superhero movies. So I do want to kind of continue it, even though we're breaking out of February. So I want to choose for the next movie, the the greatest black superhero movie ever. And I am, of course, talking about Catwoman. Yeah, I'm just kidding. No, no.
01:34:25
Speaker
No, what I do want to talk about though is next episode I do actually do want to talk about Black Panther. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, listen.
01:34:36
Speaker
It's the elephant in the room. So we might as well get to it and knock it out of the way. And as a matter of fact, I watched it on my birthday. Oh, OK. Yeah. Well, you know, I bought the Blu-ray day one. I think I think I've seen that movie like about like what? A good six or eight times. Oh, yeah. It's one of my favorite MCU movies. Yeah. Yeah.
01:34:57
Speaker
So, yeah, that's a movie. That's a that's a movie. Well, I don't want to get into it now because we're going to do it next. But this is to say that every time I watch that movie, I am more of the accomplishment. Yeah, absolutely. In that thing, that thing is absolutely mind blowing on every level. Yeah. Yeah.
01:35:15
Speaker
So we'll talk. We'll both have a lot to say about that in the next episode. Yeah. So be sure to join us the next episode. Talk about that. Give us a hand. You know, toss us five bucks. Join up. Follow us on Patreon. Patreon.com. Superhero cinephiles. Or, you know, join up with our Facebook group.
01:35:34
Speaker
Superhero cinephiles and Join the conversation Derek posts up reviews up there occasionally. He just posted up his birds of prey review on there I believe and yes, so go so go there and read it. Yeah and Website superhero cinephiles calm. Thank you so much for listening. Leave us a review Toss us some cash on patreon and we will talk to you next time Good night. God bless. Thank you for listening
01:36:07
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Superhero Cinephiles Podcast. If you have any questions or comments about this or any other episode, or if you have a superhero movie or TV show you'd like us to cover in a future episode, you can email us at superheroescinephiles at gmail.com, or you can also visit us on the web at superheroescinephiles.com. If you like what you hear, leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. Each review helps us reach more potential listeners.
01:36:34
Speaker
You can also support the show by renting or purchasing the movies discussed, or by picking up our books, all of which can be accessed through the website, as well as find links to our social media presences. The theme music for this show is a shortened version of Superhero Showdown, a royalty free piece of music, courtesy of Pheasantlionstudios.com.