Transcript
Speaker: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to your favorite bad movie podcast. It's the only podcast that's brave enough to ask the question, if this movie is so bad, why do you like it so much?
Speaker: We're your hosts. My name is Chris Anderson, and I'm going to say that I'm the Carmody of the show. Wow. Okay. This is a strong, I mean, this is not maybe what I expected.
Speaker: Well, i'm I'm a real bad boy. You have to admit it Sure. Sure. i don't remember who that is. The villain. Yeah. he's that's That's old Danny Carmody. He's got a mustache. I've got a mustache. He's got curly hair. I've got curly hair. Okay. All right. So you're selling me.
Speaker: Okay, okay, good, because that's what I need to do to my co-host, Mr. Greg Bothsy, the Keith of the show. Keith. Keith, the new leader of the Ravens. Oh, okay. No, I like that. I'll take that. Keith's pretty cool.
Speaker: Keith's a cool dude, you know, i he's maybe a little naive. Yeah, but other i'm a I'm maybe a little naive. It's true. Maybe. Maybe. And, of course, we couldn't have a show without my wife, Anna Anderson, obviously the bone crusher of the crew. Yes.
Speaker: Yes! I
Speaker: hate everything! hate people! Exactly!
Speaker: And, of course, we wouldn't have a show without our very special guest, who stepped up to the plate after our last guest bailed on us. He is, of course, our latest member of the Three Timers Club.
Speaker: It's our own personal goose, Mr. Pete Spears. Yeah. Hello, everyone. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming on the show. It's great to see you.
Speaker: How have you been? I've been doing very well. I've been doing very well and enjoying the summer. And nothing says summer like Deadbeat at Dawn.
Speaker: yeah This is definitely a summer movie. yeah ah And yeah, listeners, we are talking about Deadbeat at Dawn this week. If you haven't seen Deadbeat at Dawn, you 100% should. And here is a brief summary of the film just to hold in your mind.
Speaker: Goose is the leader of a street gang called the Ravens. But when he quits the gang, the rival gang, the spiders, kill his girlfriend.
Speaker: Now he's a deadbeat at dawn.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: spiders with a Y. Yes, that is absolutely. And good. I, I did just basically have to extrapolate on the tagline, which is in fact the perfect summary of the film. He quit the gangs. They killed his girl. He became deadbeat at dawn.
Speaker: Yeah. And Pete, I kind of suggested deadbeat at dawn to you, but mostly because I knew you would a hundred percent be on board. Tell me about your background with deadbeat at dawn.
Speaker: um Well, as best I remember it, I first saw this ah way way back when, when you were working in the video store and I was doing the movie parties because I would rent a lot of the movies from your video store for those parties. And I have to imagine that this was a direct recommendation from you to me.
Speaker: And it it is it is something that takes hold. And there's been some scenes in the movie that have played in my head ever since. and And a whole lot I forgot about. Yeah.
Speaker: it's it's definitely ah it's It's definitely an experience. And it was it was interesting and fun to revisit, for sure. Yeah, yeah. It's been a while since I checked this one out, and I'm so glad I got back to it. It was in my employee picks for, I want to say, like a solid five years at Kim's Video. Nice.
Speaker: This was one of my go-tos. This is such an amazing movie to me. It has... i think every movie should be more like Deadbeat at Dawn.
Speaker: I think the world would be a better place. I mean, you're not, you're not wrong. Anna, Greg, what's your background with that? So you showed me a, so you showed me the last fight scene from the beat at dawn. Chris wouldn't, uh, very, i don't remember when exactly, but you're like, you got to check this out.
Speaker: Uh, so I had seen that. And then after I live with you, I think you're like, no, we should watch the whole thing. i was like, yeah, absolutely. That fight scene was crazy. Uh, and so that is, ah that's how I thought it's, i haven't seen it again since.
Speaker: So I couldn't remember, I didn't know what the experience was going to be like without a person. Uh, and I will say that, uh, I had a very similar experience to the last time, which is that my fondness for it just continues to grow every time. Like you started up and the further in you get to it, the more you're like, yep, I'm into this.
Speaker: Yeah, it it's such a rich text. There's so much going on. There's so much effort put up onto the screen to make it entertaining, and yeah it makes it so rewarding to come back to.
Speaker: Anna, what's what's your background with Deadbeat at Dawn? I think I saw this for the first time a couple of years ago with you. ah This was the my second time seeing it.
Speaker: And then, yeah, it's just, it's great. ah This time around, it it kept reminding me of Michael Mann. Yeah, kind of for sure. ah in a, you know, in a very like low budget Midwestern way where, you know, he's not that at all, but, uh,
Speaker: it it I don't know. it it has It's much more deliberately filmed than a lot of so the low-budget action movies. Yeah. and that's really cool Yeah, there was definitely like an artistic vision here. This was not something at all that someone was hoping to just like make their money back on VHS and move on to bigger and better things. This was his bigger and better thing.
Speaker: And, you know, that much love and care goes into it. Obviously, listeners, you can tell that I'm crazy about this movie. I don't want to oversell it, but you're going to be listening to me so overselling it a lot.
Speaker: ah Now, there's fortunately, there is a lot of information about how it was made out there. I've ah cobbled together some of it. Do you guys want to hear about my context research? Please. All right.
Speaker: I wish had some context About the background of the film Script director, actors on set What was going on on screen I wanna hear some details Gossip skin to all that shit Can't imagine all that
Speaker: Deadbeat at Dawn was released November 18th, 1988. Your director, Jim Van Bebber. Also your writer. Also your star.
Speaker: Also your stunt choreographer. A true one-man show. But not so much. He had a lot of collaborators, as we'll see. The tagline is, of course, the classic...
Speaker: He quit the gangs. They killed his girl. He became deadbeat at dawn.
Speaker: And to me, this almost feels like ah a better adaptation of Double Dragon than the Double Dragon movie. You know what I mean? Oh, interesting. That's an interesting take. Like, this is a sick-ass... It has that same appeal of, like, a grimy, slightly futuristic, just gangs chopping it up.
Speaker: It's kind of like if the crow wasn't goth. Yeah, if he was a hesher instead. Yeah, industrial instead of goth. Interesting. Similar number of denim vests to this and Double Dragon.
Speaker: Yes, yes, exactly. Should I see Double Dragon? the Oh, ah the film? Yeah. ah Well, it's not... i i I wasn't blown away. It's not one where i was like, oh, this is a gem. You know, you could have a good fine enough time. i always like watching Mark Dacascos on screen. I do too, so they have a check you know let's see what happens.
Speaker: Wait, did you mean that the movie or the game? I played the game. Oh, okay. I should play it again, though. It's too long. Game is fun. Yeah. I don't know. those Anyway. Jim Van Bebber was born in Greenville, Ohio in 1964. So he was 24 years old when this movie it was finally finished. Wow.
Speaker: ah As a child, he always loved the pictures. He snuck out of the house at age 10 to go see Last House on the Left and experience that both traumatized him and informed his work.
Speaker: Yeah, that makes sense. ah As a teen, he would make Super 8 movies with neighborhood kids. Yeah.
Speaker: His senior year of high school, 1983, he made a short film called ah Into the Black, a Bruce Lee inspired action movie where he learned a lot of lessons that would later put to use on Deadbeat at Dawn.
Speaker: And I think he also he did study karate. I don't know to like what extent, but I think enough that it definitely helps him in this movie. yeah Like he definitely sells what he's trying to do. Yeah. He's not imitating things he's seen. He's doing it.
Speaker: Mm hmm. Now, ah the next year he enrolled in Wright State University's film program. While he was there, he met ah longtime collaborators Mike King and Marcello Games, or Marcello Gomes. I did not look at pronounce his name. I'm going to go with Marcello Games.
Speaker: and Okay. ah And they did camera and sound respectively on Deadbeat at Dawn and on some other projects. They also collaborated with him. ah He had a couple of professors that he liked there, some like notable ah documentarians, ah but ah he was frustrated that the program was more geared towards creating critics than filmmakers.
Speaker: ah He got to shoot only like two super eight films while he was there. And he ended up dropping out after sophomore year. He did, however, still get student loan money, and this was the money that he used to make Deadbeat at Dawn, or at least that was the bulk of the money that he used.
Speaker: King and Games stayed on, which allowed Van Bebber to access the school's cameras and other equipment, so he was able well to save some money there. Oh, okay. And then ah one day the the three of them, they go to see Evil Dead together and inspired him to do something similar in terms of budget and filmmaking process. But Jim wanted to do an action movie.
Speaker: Okay. And obviously the ah subtitle for ah Evil Dead 2 Dead by Dawn is the inspiration for the title Deadbeat at Dawn.
Speaker: That makes sense. Ah. Yep. ah So they started filming in 1985 and it took about three years worth of weekends to complete.
Speaker: He cast all local Dayton, Ohio actors. Some of them he knew from college. Some people came in and auditioned. Mostly the older characters were people who came in and auditioned. The father and the guy in the business suit.
Speaker: I can't imagine the father coming in with that audition and that being like so electric and being like, you got it. This is where we're going with this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so the shooting was all done. Guerrilla style, no permits, just like the last horror movie. Check out our episode on the last horror movie.
Speaker: Pete, have you ever seen the last horror movie? I haven't, but it's, it's on my list. Uh, yeah, you would love it. Yeah. The soundtrack to it is incredible. Uh, so they ran into a little trouble during filming because of their guerrilla filmmaking tactics, uh,
Speaker: They were filming a scene where goose repels down the side of a parking garage. If you remember that one, yeah they did not get permission from the owner of the garage and the garage owner showed up and came out and started yelling at them and made them stop.
Speaker: Okay. ah Also, ah Van Bebber did all his own stunts and he had never repelled before this. This was his first experience. Wow. ah Wow. incredible.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, the kind of stuff that you do when you're 21 and you're like, yeah, yeah. Whatever. I bet I could fall two stories anyway and be fine. It'd be no big deal. Yeah. Break my leg. Who cares? Go to work in another day.
Speaker: Uh, Let's see. There was also, ah so but yeah, he made it down the rappel just fine and they got the footage they needed. ah He was a little less lucky doing the stunt where he hangs onto the outside of a moving car and gets yeah smeared across a brick wall. Yeah. Apparently at one point along the brick wall, there was a piece of metal sticking out and that cut a very deep wound into his arm.
Speaker: Oh, a super clean wound too. Oh, I'm sure. Oh, oof. Yeah. Still, everybody survived filming.
Speaker: And after three years of blood, sweat, and tears, Deadbeat of Dawn premiered at the Dayton Movies Theater on November 1988.
Speaker: He was able to find distribution with a company called Ketchum Video, who put it out on VHS. But also they apparently ripped him off, as did ah the first people who put him out on DVD a little bit more than a decade later, at least ah according to him tell it.
Speaker: It wasn't until the 2008 box set visions of hell, the films of Jim Van Bebber put out by dark sky, which also included his film, the Manson family that he felt like he got a good deal for his movie. And like deadbeat at dawn had finally gotten the respect it had deserved.
Speaker: I have that box set, but I'll confess. I never made it through the three hour Manson family film that he spent 13 years making. Yeah. I like that one. I mean, I'm sure it's good. i just don't know if I'm ever in the mood at this point in my life to be like, yeah, I'm going to lock in for three and a half hours for this guy's, you know, lifelong work of making a three hour movie about the Manson family.
Speaker: ah Right. But if you had to watch that or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I know what you'd choose. Fair enough. Fair enough.
Speaker: You know, those were your only two choices. Yeah. if Yeah. i if that I was ever in that situation in my life. It's good to know.
Speaker: ah The 2019 Blu-ray release by Arrow is also very nice. Ben Beber ah was happy with that deal. He gave an interview for it. That's where I got a lot of my information from this context portion.
Speaker: So other action films of 1988. What was Deadbeat at Dawn competing against? Yeah.
Speaker: Die Hard. Nothing. Die what? Yeah, not heard that one.
Speaker: They Live, a close second, let's call it.
Speaker: Willow, fun but very different. Yeah.
Speaker: Rambo III, dedicated to the brave fighters of the Mujahideen.
Speaker: ah Red Heat, the one where Arnold was a commie and he partnered up with ah Jim Belushi. Ooh. Yeah, in Chicago.
Speaker: oh Shakedown, the one with ah Peter Weller and Sam Elliott. Very strange film. I've heard good things from Mark. He really likes that one a lot. Yeah, Mark Kensley. Yeah, huge fan. We got to get Mark on to talk Shakedown one of these days.
Speaker: And, of course, you might know it as Young Buns, Young Guns. yeah
Speaker: ah So, yeah, I think this blows them all out of the water, if I'm being honest.
Speaker: You guys want to talk about the plot of Deadbeat at Donner? Yes.
Speaker: Plot bumper, listen to me. I'm gonna give you the plot summary. Come on, baby. Here's the synopsis.
Speaker: Plot bumper, plot bumper.
Speaker: Our opening credits roll over a photo montage of cigarettes, shuriken, and scars. Before we cut to a young woman named Christy visiting a fortune teller.
Speaker: I mean, what a start to your picture. Yeah. The fortune teller tells her to believe in herself. And then Christy gets attacked by a street tough on her way out.
Speaker: The street tough is Danny Carmody, the leader of a gang called the Spiders. He's about to sexually assault her in her car when a cop spots them and breaks it up.
Speaker: And then Carmody goes home and sleeps with his own girlfriend who he has a strained relationship with. Yeah. As per usual. Yeah. You can tell he's a bad guy because he doesn't treat his woman right.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a number of reasons you can tell he's a bad guy at this point. Yeah.
Speaker: Meanwhile, ah Christie's boyfriend, Goose, as played by Jim Van Bever, gets told that the spiders were seen wandering through the cemetery. And while this is happening, he's cutting crosses into the tips of his bullets so that they will explode on impact.
Speaker: and Great stuff. ah But yeah, the spiders were seen wandering through the cemetery and the cemetery is Raven's turf. And since Goose is the leader of the Ravens, it's up to him to do something.
Speaker: I feel like cemetery should be neutral. Nope. Am I crazy? Not this cemetery. Yeah, it's just weird to be like, yeah, we saw that gang in the cemetery. It's crazy to me, but I mean, it's still a great scene.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the gangs, they meet up in the cemetery and they're wearing their finest gang gear, children's Halloween masks and jock straps over their normal clothes.
Speaker: And he was allegedly like pulling a little bit from the warriors from this. This is also supposed to be that type of, and you can almost imagine this as what happened in Dayton in the warriors universe. Dayton is like this.
Speaker: Okay. I love this concept. Yeah. Like the Great Lakes Avengers. Yeah, exactly. like we yeah We're not as cool as the guys in the big city, but we're doing our own thing our own way, and it's cool in its own way.
Speaker: ah But yeah, now ah Goose and Carmody, they both like pull guns on each other. But then Carmody's like, that'll bring down the man. You want the man to solve this for you? Let's solve this between us. And they they pull out knives. And then there's a sick ass knife fight. And this is our first proper fight scene in the movie. And he is laying down the gauntlet with just huge amount of blood coming out of these guys out of open wounds. and
Speaker: It lets you know that this is going to be a movie where the violence has a viciousness to it. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: How did this one hit you, Pete? When you first came back for this viewing and you saw this knife fight. the the The thing that stood out to me in this scene, and it it's something that keeps replaying and kept replaying in my mind throughout watching it, is that this is filmed in public. like You could be at that cemetery and see this knife fight happening,
Speaker: And, you know, just like, oh I guess that's what's happening today. this is The boldness with which they filmed this gory knife fight scene in the broad daylight in a public cemetery rules.
Speaker: It was, yeah it was really exciting. Yeah. They weren't thinking like, oh, this could be someone's sister's grave and they could be coming here today no and see me leaning on and be like, fuck you, man.
Speaker: Fuck you. Yeah.
Speaker: It's just so loud and so gory and just extreme. Yeah, and there's so many guys like dressed like psychos. Kind of like like Garbage Pail Kid versions of the Warriors, too. Like the jockstrap on the outside of the jeans thing. It's like almost comical in how over-the-top it is.
Speaker: it's really yeah It pulls you into a universe right away. Yeah, it lets you know that all these people are like fucking freaks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Uh, so Goose ends up kicking Carmody's ass eventually. And then the cops show up after, you know, the spiders pull out their guns. Cause they're all chicken shits. Uh, Goose does shoot a guy's hand off. You see a hand explode. Pretty wild.
Speaker: Yeah. Great stuff. And then everybody runs away, ah back at their apartment. Christie stitches up Goose's wounds and reads from the Necronomicon to him as he recuperates.
Speaker: It's great. Yeah. Yeah. I love that Christy is witchy. I love that they gave her that like specificity and like, oh yeah, a witchy gal is the perfect companion for Goose. And I love that he's like, I'm not getting into this and getting all your stuff.
Speaker: It's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. ah Now, ah when he wakes up, she begs him to quit the gangs and settle down with her. But he says the gangs need him.
Speaker: And then he leaves to go practice nunchucks in a cemetery.
Speaker: Incredible. The gang needs me. I'm going to go practice my nunchucks in the cemetery. yeah it's so And it pulls it off.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Now, ah once Goose is down in the cemetery, once he's done in the cemetery, that is, he whips a dude in the face with nunchucks and steals his motorcycle. it looks just really It looks like he actually hits him with the nunchucks.
Speaker: Yes. The nunchuck violence. You hear a lot of people talk shit about nunchucks and be like, oh, I don't think nunchucks would hurt that bad. But they would. Yeah.
Speaker: Of course they would. They would hurt very bad. And this movie definitely hits that home very effectively. Oh, yes. Yeah. I was going say, when he hits that guy with ah the motorcycle, and he's laid out on the on the driveway of the apartment complex, he's not moving.
Speaker: Yeah. it seems like He's cold cocked. He's done. Yeah. Wild. Like, listen listeners, imagine someone picking up just a broomstick and hitting you in the side of the head with it as hard as they could. That's already kind of bad. Then you got to figure the chain's adding something to that. Yeah. You know?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So anyway, he rides the motorcycle back home and tells k Christie that he will quit the gangs. Now that he's still on this cool motorcycle, I'm going to quit the gang, I think. it's It's actually kind of a good argument. I like that it starts off with, me I'm not going to quit, then eventually you just think you know what? You might be right.
Speaker: You might be right about that. might not be a bad idea. And it's, you don't typically see that in a movie where someone's like, I'll admit that maybe I was mistaken. And your ideas is not that bad of one, actually. Like, it's kind of nice to see that.
Speaker: You can tell like halfway through the argument where that turns. Cause he has one of my favorite lines in the movie, which is what do you want me to do? Change or something? Yeah. Yeah. yeah And then he does. He's not a bad guy, Goose.
Speaker: So, ah yeah, the two of them, they take a bike ride out to the country where they smoke a J and they make love in the woods. It's great. Beautiful stuff. Then Christie says, tell me we'll be together forever.
Speaker: And Goose responds, Christie, we're going to be together forever. Ever. Ever. And ah then she gives him a stained glass cross to wear as a sort of amulet of protection.
Speaker: And this is the point where he accepts it finally, right? Because before he's been rejecting it, but now like, all right, I'll take the protection. Yeah. Okay. I don't have the gang to protect me anymore, so I need whatever can get. Yeah. yeah ah So Goose, then he goes and tells his boy, Keith, that he's quitting the Ravens. and What do you guys think of Keith in this movie? Keith, I thought, was like one of the better actors.
Speaker: Yeah, I would agree with that. I think they're all great. It's true. It's true. I think Jim Van Babber does give it like a really good performance as Goose here. It's very naturalistic. Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I don't feel like there's many people that do a bad job in this movie, except for maybe like the fortune teller and maybe like one or two other small parts. But generally... Yeah. Like everyone is doing a pretty good job, like much better than you typically see in something of this kind with this kind of budget.
Speaker: It's true. Now, now that you you mentioned it, I'm hard pressed to think of a ah performance that I didn't like. So ah Keith, at first, he tries to talk him out of quitting the gangs.
Speaker: ah But then he says it's no big deal because now Keith, he gets to be in charge and he can finally work with ah the spiders, which is something that he's wanted to do for a while.
Speaker: And then the two gangs will be like a huge scab over the whole city. Yeah. a Great line. Another great line. Yeah. ah Goose thinks that this is a terrible plan, but it's not his business anymore. So he just leaves.
Speaker: Meanwhile, word has reached Carmody that Goose has dropped out. That makes him vulnerable. So he sends his boys Bonecrusher and I believe Stubby ah yeah to yeah go find him at his apartment.
Speaker: I love that this is takes place in a stairwell. ah Yeah. In a stairwell when he's doing all these things. And also i I love Bone Crusher. i just have to say, i think I told you this the first time watched it together. Bone Crusher. Oh, my God.
Speaker: I love Bone Crusher. he is incredible in this film. Yes. ah Jim Van Bever described him as the sort of Dennis Hopper of the movie in terms of acting style. Sure. He's just like, he's going to let him loose and he's always going to bring something a little bit electric and he's going to, you know, challenge the other actors and make them better, you know?
Speaker: ah And he is about to give, or at this point in the film gives his famous monologue, which I was going to cut before the show, but Chris in the editing booth, download this or edit this, get this audio clip and put Bonecrusher's monologue in the show now.
Speaker: Man, that ain't nothing compared to the rest you can get when you're killing somebody, man. You know what i mean? When you're looking in their eyes and you're seeing all that life just go right out of them,
Speaker: It's power.
Speaker: I hate people, man. I don't care. I don't give a shit. I don't give a shit about nothing.
Speaker: the All my life, people fuck with me. Don't you fuck with me, man. I just fucking hate people. I hate people. And I don't care.
Speaker: I just don't fucking care.
Speaker: I don't care.
Speaker: no I am the best motherfucker you ever saw, man.
Speaker: I think, obviously, an incredible moment in this movie. Yeah. Yes, I did write down, because you you've been saying monologue. I wrote down that it's a soliloquy.
Speaker: That's the word? I'm not quite sure what the distinction is between that, but it's definitely a soliloquy, because it's so like philosophical, man. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I feel like it crystallizes something about this film. I haven't had a chance enough to like articulate that, but that's the moment where it like really... like the diamond shines bright and you kind of realize what you're watching. Yeah.
Speaker: To me this time around, it really felt like this sort of scream of Midwestern nihilism of like this sort of forgotten collapsing town and the sort of like dark side that could bubble up there was just being expressed to this guy. And one thing about this scene, Pete shared this story with me. Why don't you tell this story, Pete?
Speaker: You found it. Oh, the, about the, the rush, the vial of rush. The Bob, about the bottle of rush. um um the the story i had found was that um the director jim van bever would not ask any of his actors to do anything that he wouldn't do himself and so the scene called for bone crusher to actually huff an actual vial of of rush whatever whatever that is it's poppers i think popper okay perfect
Speaker: Well, so he's like, let me try it first. And he did it and then was comatose for 20 minutes, just out cold. And when he came back, he said, there's no way I can ask you to do this.
Speaker: So he he, had like a dummy vial on okay set. Um, but, uh, Van Bever did it for real. That's crazy. Probably in that train station.
Speaker: yeah but But at least yeah after that bone crusher, uh, the actor Mark Pittman, I think, uh, yeah, said that he, uh, you know, he would have at least that reference, you know, to see what Van Bever was like after he snorted the popper to inform his performance.
Speaker: Yeah. Uh, but yeah. And I think an all time classic scene, and I think the one that a lot, this is the one that sticks with people the most other than the the finale. Of course.
Speaker: It's a total star turn. It's incredible.
Speaker: Uh, they end up ah going over to, uh, goose's apartment while goose is out selling crank to a man in a suit.
Speaker: Crank cocaine. I thought it was meth. Meth. Okay. Sure. I guess it's a white powder. It's tough to tell what it is. Yeah. Yeah. That would make sense though. That would make a lot of sense.
Speaker: And, ah and the guy says, or he asked the guy, what are you going to do with it? And he's like, well, I can sell it to kids. I can sell it on the street. Fuck. Do you care? Yeah. Well, yeah. Yep.
Speaker: All right. that's Fair enough. That's Dayton. Uh, so while, uh, he's out, Bonecrusher and Stubby break into the apartment and beat Christie to death with golf clubs. It's rough.
Speaker: Yeah. Because first we hear them like screaming outside and obviously the actor that is playing Bonecrusher that we've been raving about is can also act like a crazy, scary guy very well. Yeah. And then they finally bust in and there's only two shots of them actually attacking her.
Speaker: One of them is her covered in blood and screaming And the other one is a reverse shot of the two of them just jabbing golf clubs downward into like wet thuds.
Speaker: And it's just these two shots, but they're so impactful. Yeah.
Speaker: You know, and it's weird to think about the restraint of deadbeat at dawn and how impactful that can be. But like the same way people talk about Texas chainsaw massacre and how you never see the hook go in the lady's back.
Speaker: ah Just my two cents listeners. ah So Goose comes home to find ah Christie's dead body. And he's understandably upset.
Speaker: He gives Christie what I call a Dayton funeral, um which is where you throw the dead body into the back of a garbage truck and compact it.
Speaker: You hear it too. It's wild. And he's just like up there crying. And it's just like, this scene is intense yeah are and I'm not sure why you're like doing this. Yeah, the whole thing is wild.
Speaker: there's There's a number of choices that people make. or I'm like, I don't really get it. But also it feels really correct. Yeah. Yeah. It's perfect for the movie. You go with it.
Speaker: Uh, so then Goose enters, a bit of a dark period. I want to say. Uh, he briefly crashes with his junkie father, ah before learning that his father just wants money for more smack.
Speaker: So he gives him enough money to go buy heroin and kill himself with it. I, I do love that he enters the house by going up the fire escape and then walking across the range top of the oven to get in.
Speaker: You don't really know where he is. And he opens up the beard. And then like at some point i was like, I think maybe that's his dad, but it's not really confirmed until like several minutes later. so the entire time you're like, i what, what entirely is going on here? But it's really interesting. And that actor is incredible in his own yeah way. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. The dad does a lot of screaming, yeah a lot of like fast paced gibberish. Yeah. ah I'm sure all that dialogue was improvised.
Speaker: It seems like it probably was. He really reminds me a lot of Rodney Dangerfield in Natural Born Killers. Yes. Oh, wait a minute. I've never seen Natural Born because he's in... this is Oh, yeah. He has a wild cameo as a, like...
Speaker: crazy evil father and he does a lot of yelling okay okay Yeah, yeah. You should check out Natural Born Killers. that's got That's the one thing that has me more interested in the movie than anything else I've ever heard or seen before, so intriguing. It's pretty good.
Speaker: Yeah. Did you all think that when Goose first enters the apartment and jumps up onto the fire escape to get in, did it seem like it was about to fall off the building to the rest of the world as well? Yeah, little rickety.
Speaker: I assumed that he was like squatting at that point. Yeah. It just seemed very unsafe. Oh, yeah. You know, like they got one one take on this thing before it all just went into the parking a lot.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, and I'm sure they weren't doing too many reshoots just based on their limited time and budget. You know, if you know you got it, then you might as well keep on trucking. Oh, they got they got the one. I just thought like it was so rusty it was going to just collapse. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It definitely was just like this this is this is this building is over Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Dayton might even be described as a character in and of itself. Maybe little bit, little bit. yeahp I would say so. Uh, so Goose looks down on his father's drug use, but then he immediately starts his own bender drinking and doing Coke and acid and getting in fights, uh, getting handsy with ladies and zebra print mini dresses and, uh, stealing whiskey from hobos.
Speaker: All the classics. yeah Yeah. Finally, he bottoms out. He's about to shoot himself in the forehead with his very tiny gun.
Speaker: ah I believe that's actually a starter pistol. and think that was the only thing they could get for a prop gun. That would make sense. Yeah. And definitely much safer than having a real gun on set with these yahoos running around.
Speaker: yeah. Now, ah yeah, he's about to shoot himself in the forehead when all of a sudden his buddy Keith emerges from the shadows to stop him.
Speaker: He says that he needs him for a big score. So Keith helps him dry out. And this enters like the very Michael Mann portion of the movie, I want to say. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: I have to say this shot, like when they're talking to him, there's, they cut to like a long shot with him down in the corner and the two guys kind of off and you get to see him down and them up. And it's just, it's such a nice and interesting shot. The kind of thing that I think when you see a movie that's at this budget with, with this kind of filming and everything, that they're not going to think about that kind of setting up a scene and shooting in that way. And it just shows the dedication to craft and the choices that they're making. Like it really is a really nicely filmed section, uh, that really impressed me this time when I was watching it.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Or even, ah whenever they cut to that stairwell where, uh, Carmody will meet with bone crusher to always have that green and purple lighting in there to make it like their evil villain layer. i think it's always so much fun.
Speaker: Yeah. ah So Keith helps Goose dry out before reintroducing him to his newest partner in crime, Carmody. Keith brought Goose back into the Ravens for their big collaboration with the spiders.
Speaker: Goose and Carmody fight, and Goose is still strung out, and so Carmody is able to defeat him easily. How the mighty have fallen.
Speaker: Later, Carmody confirms what we all suspected when he tells Bonecrusher that after this job and armored car robbery, he's going to betray Goose and the Ravens and kill them all.
Speaker: Bonecrusher then idly reminisces about how Christie's guts looked like a bunch of snakes. Bonecrusher's incredible in this, especially when he's like, he took two second all, and then he left. any he went Like he just can't remember. Like it just, it really, really solidifies how out of his mind bone crusher is. And it's just like, we're, this guy is the muscle and he is so gone.
Speaker: Like probably all the time, I assume. Like this guy crazy. This guy's not going to live another six months. He is a living weapon. He's a great villain because you just, you really don't know what he could do. Because at any point he could just be like, I see snakes.
Speaker: And just like start beating, like it's wild. Love him in this scene. Love Bone Crusher. Yeah, for sure. Uh, so we cut to several weeks later and anytime there's a time jump, there's some like kaleidoscope visuals. It looks really nice.
Speaker: Yeah. I like it as a little visual storytelling thing. Uh, but then it's the day before the armored car heist. Carmody is going over everyone's jobs.
Speaker: One of the spiders says, we'll be in and out so quick. They won't have time to come. ye Great line. Yeah. Yep. Yep.
Speaker: And then it's the big day. An armored car. Well, first there's a marching parade and the guys run through the marching parade. Apparently this happened because they heard there was a parade going on that day and they're like, oh yeah, let's just get a shot of us running through the parade. We'll look like psychos. It'll be great. it' smart I was clapping while that was happening. It's so incredible.
Speaker: Yeah. Real parade. and they're like, yep, we're just going to include this in the movie. With all our characters. it It does. It really sells this concept that it's just like, it's just people who don't give a shit about anything. And it's like, they're just going to do whatever the hell they want to do. And it's kind of terrifying.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. They then ah drag a burning mattress into the middle of an intersection, something else that they also did. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And this ah most likely blocks the, ah you know, truck from going where it wants to go.
Speaker: And ah now that it's in this alley,
Speaker: Goose repels down from the third floor of an adjacent parking garage. Absolutely. Yeah. Sick as hell. Then to top it off, he stops halfway through to throw the biggest shuriken you've ever seen directly into the throat of one of the armed guards for the Brink struck, killing him instantly.
Speaker: ah The rest of the gang then comes racing out of the woodwork, bum rushing the Brinks truck. This was their plan. Stop the truck and then just swarm it with 30 guys. Also, the rappelling down, the whole thing is like equally ridiculous and awesome.
Speaker: Yeah. like and I was like, what are they going to do? He's like, I'm not going to miss my mark. It's like, what are they going to do? is like, I didn't expect rappelling in a shuriken. That was the last thing that was kind of in my in my playbook of possibilities.
Speaker: They rapidly overwhelm the guards and then they drive off with a fat sack of cash.
Speaker: That night, the two gangs celebrate in their own respective headquarters. And we get to see all the great graffiti that's up in um the Ravens headquarters. That's like clearly just we have like five cans of spray paint. We've got an afternoon. Just put a bunch of mean words on the wall. Just write the word death.
Speaker: yeah kill You suck. Yeah. A frowny face. Yeah.
Speaker: And then Keith gathers up the ravens so they can go pick up their fair share of the cash from the spiders. They're not bringing any weapons. This is business. Or so Keith says.
Speaker: Luckily, Goose brought some weapons for himself. say Fuck that. I'm obviously bringing weapons. I'm Goose. Yeah. yeah And ah when the spiders inevitably betray the ravens and start mowing them down with machine guns, Goose is at least able to grab the cash and shoot his way out of there.
Speaker: the spider chased after him and he's on foot and they're in a car, but then juice goose jumps over guardrail into a nearby river and escapes very exciting action stuff.
Speaker: going Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's all like legible. Like when you think of like action movies and the problems that people have with action movies, yeah a huge problem that a lot of directors have is that they're illegible. And here, you know exactly what's going on. He just knows how to like, it's done very well edit this. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: And they also know their limitations. Like you can see that some of the shots they don't have that they would like, but they still cut around it in a way where it makes a lot of sense. You know, it's like they knew what they were doing.
Speaker: It's really great. Yeah. ah So after... oh i sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm interrupting. I apologize. as you say No, no, no, no. i feel like a lesser movie would have maybe slow-moed the three to four-story jump he takes into the water because it's such an extreme stunt.
Speaker: And at this point in the movie, things are moving so fast that it's just like one other thing that's happening that the director of the movie has jumped off a building effectively into a river...
Speaker: Again, in in the middle of the day with no permits. And they're just like, we're moving on. Next shot. yeah It's incredible.
Speaker: ah
Speaker: So then ah Goose fishes himself out of the river. He goes to a nearby gas station for, I believe, a Sprite. Yep. I think that's what it was.
Speaker: And then the gas station attendant tells him that he has to pay for it. Then he pulls a gun on the gas station attendant instead of pulling, say, one of the hundred thousand dollars that he has out of the sack of cash he has with him and moving on with his day. And then an old lady yells at her son to shoot Goose, shoot him in the head.
Speaker: Great. What? It's just madness. At this point, the film is just madness. but it reminds you that yeah, all of Dayton is a sort of post-apocalyptic violent world where, yeah you know, everybody's packing.
Speaker: That lady has the line, get them Ralph. Yes. So great. Yeah. She's an old, and you need a little bit of levity and she's a little bit of comedy and I think breaking the tension a little bit is good.
Speaker: Uh, So then he goes and he hallucinates in a cemetery for a little while. lot of snakes. I was really impressed with their use of snakes in this. Yeah. Yeah. They must have known a snake guy.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Exactly the words I was going to use. I know snake guy. get a guy who's into snakes. It's not a handler. He really likes him. He's got like six. Six, I think, is more than we need. If we can get three of them down here, I think we'll be
Speaker: set. And then Goose goes to a nearby lunch and sandwich parlor, its words, where he uses a payphone to call Sandy, Christy's estranged younger sister.
Speaker: He tells her to meet him at the Dayton train station. He has something Christy wanted him to give her. If I'm her, I don't know if I go to this. Well, maybe you really hope... This is your first lead towards Christy, though. That's fair. I was just pondering that. it was like, this guy calls me in the middle of days like, i got something from your sister. It's like, I don't am i amre am i am i concerned about this? do I bring...
Speaker: Somebody else? What's happening? You know, just these things run through my brain. Sandy is perhaps brash, we could It works for the film the very least. It's not weird. It just ran through my brain.
Speaker: So Goose makes his way over to the train station. And we hear a train whistle. And that's our cue to the audience to let us know that the movie is about to go into overdrive.
Speaker: When you hear this train whistle. The train is about to start bearing down on you. Yeah. There's about, I want to say, eight minutes left in the movie at this point. And they're arguably the most kick-ass eight minutes ever put on film.
Speaker: Yeah. say. ah the spiders have spotted Goose and they start going after him. And he's whipping dudes in the face with nunchucks and he's doing backflips. And as somebody gets run over by a train and Bone Crusher picks up a railroad tie and he starts ramming Goose with it. Until Goose throws a shuriken into his forehead and then bashes his skull on the concrete and pushes him off the side of a bridge. And then he gets decapitated by the traffic below.
Speaker: And we're just getting started. It's crazy. Yeah. It's nonstop. It's so good. Yeah. I love how they time so many of the action shots with trains coming into frame to passing by. So there's always these sort of these sort of like parallax motions happening in different distances. It is yeah something for your eye to follow. It is intoxicating. It's really, really wonderful.
Speaker: He said he had to time out the train schedule to know when to get their shots. Yeah. Nailed it. Very smart. They did such a good job with that. Yeah. Yeah. And it adds such an air of danger to see these trains going by while this guy's fucking karate kicking dudes in the throat. It also sometimes just cuts away to just a train shot and it just works so nicely and adds to the pace and the beat and the way that the thing is cut together. It's so great.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Just, yeah. Resets to a different location with different gang members. Here we go. New one. Uh, so, uh, just then Sandy arrives and Carmody carjacks her group goose grabs Carmody from outside the car.
Speaker: Uh, but Carmody rolls up the window, trapping goose outside. And then the most iconic stunt of the movie is We get Carmody driving the car up against an alley wall, smearing blood all over it.
Speaker: It's so gnarly. Yeah. Yeah. yeah And I've never seen that in another movie.
Speaker: No, I don't, I don't think I have either.
Speaker: Possibly. I don't know if I have. If I have, it was a movie with professional stuntmen working on it. It's certainly a lot less visceral. I've never seen it. Yeah. I've never seen guy just do this. Yeah. Yeah. Like, he didn't rig the car. was just like, if you start getting too close, I'm going to yell. It's just a regular car. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. But finally he gets to the end of the alley and you know, car Mody wrecks and they, I think they get out for some reason. Wait, wait. I remember the reason very specifically because they cut away to, is it Sarah, the sister?
Speaker: Sandy. Sandy. She's like down on the floor and she just punches him right in the testicles. She just gives that quick nut punch. And he's like, okay. And then the car veers, but I just like, cause it's so quick and it's just like, that's actually an excellent move.
Speaker: That's really a great idea. You really nailed your choices. Yeah. Yeah, it works. ah The car does crash. a They get out of the car and the two of them start fighting hand to hand.
Speaker: Carmody stabs Goose in the side like 15 times prison shiv style. It's terrifying. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he just goes like, doo do do doo do, do, do, do.
Speaker: And it's like, ah you know, you're so used to in movies seeing somebody get stabbed and be like, ah, the final stab. But this is just so many stabs.
Speaker: Makes you realize the true danger of a knife. Yeah. Yes. But also, ah it's not over. Carmody then bites one of his fingers off.
Speaker: Not to be outdone, Goose takes a page from the movie Roadhouse and rips out Carmody's trachea. Yep. Incredible. Yeah.
Speaker: The horrified Sandy looks on as a mortally wounded Goose hands her the sack of money. And he says it's from Christy. Did you kill her?
Speaker: Sandy asks. No. ah loved her. says Goose before stumbling off to collapse on the side of a Dayton street.
Speaker: Yeah. The end. Oof. A lot of beautiful freeze frames of Sandy carrying like black and white photos of her carrying it, just yeah being covered in blood. It's so good.
Speaker: So strong. Those images is what an ending. Yes. Yes. The only way it could have ended. yeah Final thoughts.
Speaker: Five star ratings in terms of watchability and weirdness. Greg, you have to to set us up port. Sure. So admittedly, like the low budget actioner is not my typical film. I've certainly liked a number of low budget actioners, but it's not the thing I typically go for. violence and gore, needed to have like a point to it for me to really get into it. You know, i don't want it to be just like, look at what I can do. So when I first, even the first time you told me to watch this thing, and even this time, I'm like, am I going to be into this?
Speaker: And just as it keeps going further along, it just becomes more compelling. And I don't fully, it's partially noticing the amount of work, craft and attention it's put into everything.
Speaker: I think the Bone Crusher, when I said it really crystallizes everything, that's the moment. Like when you see him just be like, I hate everything. i hate the world. It's like you realize that you're dealing with a different beast than you thought you might have been dealing with. ah The analog I thought of, especially because a Bone Crusher, is the first Mad Max movie. Has anybody seen the first Mad Max movie? Mm-hmm.
Speaker: it's very as you know it's It's very different than the other ones. It's more performance-based, and that's why I like it so much. is like it's just You just see people, you're like, you are fucked up on drugs, and I don't know what you're going to do. And in that way, you're so much more dangerous than you would be. But this is the life you live. This is the...
Speaker: this is the dialogue of cinema that we're using is just like, and it speaks to, yeah, as you said, this Midwestern fear and just, it's, it just kind of works its way into your system and it's propulsive.
Speaker: And again, everything's done really well. thinking back, it's like, did anyone do a poor job of acting? it's like just maybe the fortune teller, which is weird. Cause she's one of the first ones you see. She's like, Oh boy, here we go. It's one of these. And it's not like, it's, it's a surprising movie.
Speaker: I give it a four just because it's it can be rough to watch at times. But it is it is really good. Four for watchability. I don't think it's crazy weird. It's like a little weird in that like seedy underbelly style.
Speaker: Like if you're not accustomed to that kind of a thing, it could be like, ooh. But I don't think that that's that weird in the end. So I'm going to give it just a one and a half for weirdness.
Speaker: Now that makes sense to me. What about you, Anna? um I gave it a four for watchability. i think it's an an under-seen entry yeah in the the canon of cheap regional action flicks. I feel like, you know, everybody who's...
Speaker: into you know bad movies has seen Miami Connection. Well, this is like this is like if man Miami Connection was heat or if Miami Connection was drive and you know and took place in Dayton.
Speaker: um And that's a cool concept. Yeah. And I do, I agree with Greg that it's not that weird. It's not that narratively weird, you know? Um, but I did give it a one because, ah because it does have a, such a higher level of, of craft and artistic sensibility.
Speaker: um, than usual. And there's some yeah there's some strange images. like there's a There's a shot in the cemetery of um God, I've forgotten his girlfriend's Kathy. Christy.
Speaker: ah Close enough. ah But she appears to Goose as like this shrouded figure covered in blood like standing between to gravestones. And it's just like, that's just a, a very European art film shot. And it's very weird to have that in, in a movie called deadbeat at dawn. Now I can see that. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. I, I gave this one a five stars for watchability. It was going to be four and a half, but then 81 minutes, that's a certified Chris's delight. It gets the half star bump.
Speaker: ah But yeah, low budget in a way that some people might find alienating. They might bounce off of if, you know, they don't know how to watch films in that aesthetic realm, but yeah.
Speaker: ah For me, if you can meet it on its level, this is essentially a perfect movie. You know, i have absolutely no complaints when I'm watching this movie. ah For Weirdness, I gave it three stars just because of that sort of viciousness to the violence. I feel like it's sort of atypical, you know, having that horror aesthetic to an action film in a way. ah Like this is sort of the rare action movie where you see people get maimed.
Speaker: oh You know, that's just, that doesn't happen a lot. ah But Pete, in terms of watchability and weird weirdness, what are you thinking? um I think I'm with, I think I'm with Greg on ah both of my ratings.
Speaker: ah One of the things, watchability, it's, yeah, as it I'd say it begins lower than it ends. you know Roughly around Bonecrusher's solution. The ending's an all-timer.
Speaker: it's It's unbelievable. but it's it's really Once things are established and you understand the world you're in then it becomes more of a five for me. It starts much lower. and you don't you know It had been some time since I had had watched initially.
Speaker: I forgot this is a movie with no heroes. There are no redeemable yeah people other than sandy the the innocent sister who's only brought on screen to be traumatized and and that's it.
Speaker: You know, it's it's it's very tough in that way. But to to know that this is this a shot in daylight without permits so well under those conditions, you it's so composed and it's, ah you have to assume on the all the gore effects that they've got one shot and scene after scene, they just nail it.
Speaker: It's really thrilling to watch come together. So depending on where in the movie it is, it's either a four or five for me. It's it's it's quite a watch. There's not much like it. And then weirdness, I would maybe bump it up to a two, not because things are, you know, psychedelically strange or anything, but how particular the character studies are.
Speaker: e Like the the person in in the diner ordering food. i forget i forgot about that. Yeah. that's yeah It isn't necessary to the advancing the plot, but to establish the world that they're in yeah it's so specific.
Speaker: Or the the lady telling her her son to shoot the robber. Everyone in the film is at that level of edge all the time. And it's so, yeah it's it is like a Dayton maybe you've been to, but just heightened to this ah absurd a parallel universe level that, again, is once you accept it, really pulls you in.
Speaker: Yeah. And I think, you know, going back to what you were saying about how the production influences your reading of it, yeah I do find myself so charmed forward because it feels so much like the kind of thing that you and your buddies would dream about making. You what mean? Like you would be drunk one night and be like, let's do this. But you know Jim Van Bever went and did it and he hit it out of the park. And you know, that, that's a special thing to say. Yeah. yeah Well, enough of me overselling deadbeat at dawn. Let's, let's broaden our scope a little bit and talk about some trends in film. All right.
Speaker: This week's trends in film is nunchucks.
Speaker: this week's trends in film is nunchucks Excellent. Mm-hmm. Nunchucks are an ancient martial arts weapon that originated in either China or Okinawa, depending on who you ask.
Speaker: The oldest written reference to nunchucks comes from eleventh century China. They're composed of two foot long rods connected by about three inches of rope or chain. Ideally, if a nunchuck rests in your hands, the rods should be able to both reach down towards the ground, but the rope should not extend. It should be about as long as the width of your hand.
Speaker: Nunchucks first made an impression on Western audiences in the films of Bruce Lee, where he used nunchucks in at least his last three films. The Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, and Game of Death all prominently feature nunchuck scenes.
Speaker: ah They were a mainstay of kung fu films in the 70s, and this led to their popular popularity amongst street gangs as a brief fad in the 70s and 80s, which quickly led to them being banned and or restricted in countries around the world.
Speaker: Way more than one might expect. ah for what is, you know, essentially two sticks tied together. There are laws banning or restricting the carrying, sale, or import of nunchucks in Australia, Norway, Canada, Russia, Poland, Spain, Germany, the UK, as well as in the States, in New York, Arizona, California, and Massachusetts, varying to different degrees.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: The antithope towards nunchucks in the UK was so great that when they brought over the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the UK, they were rebranded as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, and Michelangelo's trademark nunchucks were replaced with a grappling hook.
Speaker: Boo. Boo. That would have been something. Yes. thought you were going to say a pizza. Yeah, he just should be throwing pizzas at people. It's on brand. He loves them.
Speaker: Now, ah despite all this backlash, nunchucks have become a classic movie weapon. I'm always psyched when I see nunchucks on screen. I'm always locking in on nunchucks. So ah here are some classic nunchuck films, and we can see sort of some trends over time, I think.
Speaker: We've obviously got the 70s and kung fu films. That's where they're sort of starting off. And then in the 80s, we start to see them appear in other places around the world.
Speaker: You know, you've got them in Conquest. Of course, check out our episode about Conquest with Merrick Kay, where the guy had ah ancient stone nunchucks. That's right. ah But you've also got them in a Nightmare on Elm Street 4, the Dream Master, where the cool older brother had nunchucks.
Speaker: ah You've got them in the movie Eliminators. The ninja character in there had nunchucks. oh And of course you've got them in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 in 1988.
Speaker: And that's, I think, when they started to cross over into more children's properties. That's when you start seeing them in Sidekicks and ah but Three Ninjas.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I think the sort then you also see them in a sort of postmodern sense in Phantasm three where Rocky was wielding those nunchucks.
Speaker: Uh, but then they started moving into comedies. You got them in Beverly Hills, Ninja. You've got them in Kung Pao enter the fist where they're a pair of gophers tied together.
Speaker: i figure forgot about that movie. Yeah. Maybe for, maybe for the best. I bet there are defenders, but I'm not going to be one of them. I'm sure. And you've also got the guy using them in the parking lot in Ghost World. Okay.
Speaker: Are they in City Dragon? Am I crazy? Yes, he does use them in City Dragon. That's definitely a post-concruise. When he's angry. Yeah. Working out his emotions with some nunchucks.
Speaker: Yeah. I could see it working. But then they've been more recently making a comeback. Yeah. ah yeah There were nunchucks in John Wick 4. Okay.
Speaker: I know. I was excited. I forgot about that. but yeah Also, one movie that was recommended to me was something called The Matchstick Flame that came out in 2020.
Speaker: That looks like it might be up our alley. At the very least, it's got nunchucks in it, so I'm very curious. I will be reporting back on The Matchstick Flame. Good. Good.
Speaker: Well, you guys have any nunchuck thoughts? There's nunchucks in Napoleon Dynamite, right? oh that I think he just mentions nunchucks. He's just okay, because i I did search it briefly, and it's, yeah, he talks about it's important to have skills to impress women, and he has nunchuck skills.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think he was talking himself up. I think he did not actually have those nunchuck skills. and i correct I feel like a nunchuck is one of those things that like, if you don't really like, if you've never interacted with them and I assume most haven't, like you don't have someone who happens to have a pair of nunchucks, you don't really realize the kind of like damage they could cause. Like you kind of swirl one around and you're like, oh Like, it's like, that's actually whipping around a little faster. Like, I don't want to catch it. Like, don't want to put my hand in there and try to catch that nunchuck.
Speaker: I better of be careful as I let this come to a rest. Like, it's ah it's kind of upsetting. Yeah. You can see why they got so heavily regulated throughout the rest I think even in Hong Kong, if I remember right there were briefly, they can only be ah owned by, you know, people working in films or trained martial arts instructors. Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. I wouldn't want someone to be going around in a nunchuck with a crowd, you know?
Speaker: No, no. I don't want to see people getting whipped in the face with nunchucks. Well, I mean, I do in films. Yeah. yeah That's a different story. It's a safe space there and in a way.
Speaker: But enough about nunchucks. Yeah. Knock wood.
Speaker: Enough about nunchucks. Who wants to play a game? Yeah. Let's go.
Speaker: Rare bumper, you guys. I don't know if I know this. I logged into IMDb. Can you guess what did I see? They rate the movies on their out of 10. Okay.
Speaker: They'll rate them eight. They'll rate them four when they give out their rating score. But can you guess what they have rated them? It's IMDb.
Speaker: That's right. It's time to play the ratings game. i need to pay attention to the instructions on this one, I think. Yeah, it's been a while. ah i i had some challenges trying to make a game out of this week's IMDb credits. The only guy that really did much other work was Mike King, the cinematographer.
Speaker: and okay So what I have here is I have a list of ah nine films. I'm going to give you the title and the description. And I want you guys to ah tell me what that movie is rated on IMDb.
Speaker: On IMDB. Okay. Whoever gets it closest will ah get the point. And whoever is, if you get it exactly on the bunny, you'll get two points.
Speaker: Okay. Cool. Everybody ready? Yes. Yes. All right. And you won't have to buzz in. I'm just going to go around the panel. Okay. Question number one.
Speaker: The offerings. Okay. A housekeeper is drawn into a terrifying world of vengeful apparitions. According to the Chinese calendar, the seventh month of every year marks the time when the spirits of the dead break free from the gates of hell.
Speaker: The offerings. Greg, what did you think that one was read? 5.7. Okay. Anna, what about you? 4.3. four point three Okay. And Pete?
Speaker: Ten. I love it. Anna gets the point. That was a 3.0. Okay. Okay. yeah
Speaker: I mean, you're right, Pete. It probably is underrated. i you and Shoot for the moon.
Speaker: Yeah. Why not believe in these films? Exactly. Question number two. ah No pain, no gain A bodybuilder with a genius IQ moves to L.A. to prove that science can beat steroids, which is weird because steroids are science. Yeah. ah Yeah.
Speaker: but No pain, no gain. Anna, what did you think that one got? 6.1. Okay. What about you, Pete? 5.0.
Speaker: five point zero Okay, okay. What about you, Greg? Greg, very close on that one. It was a 4.5. Ooh.
Speaker: Very close.
Speaker: Don't worry, there's plenty game left to play. Question number three. The Vault. A teacher and four students visit an old high school that's set to be demolished. They discovered that it used to be a building used to hold slaves. And there's a mysterious vault in the basement that contains the ultimate evil.
Speaker: The vault. Pete, what do you think the vault got? ah Four. Okay, okay. Greg, what about you? 3.4.
Speaker: three point four Okay. Okay. Anna. 2.8. Oh, uh, Greg gets that one. It was 3.2. Wow.
Speaker: Okay. Once again, very close. Okay. Okay. Maybe this one, ah maybe this one will turn it around. We've had a lot of low ranks this time around.
Speaker: Question number four. That's a clue. We'll see. We'll see. Maybe it is. My Day in the Barrel. o A coming of age tale set on a very busy college day.
Speaker: Written and directed by Wichita native Jason Bailey. Yeah, I've seen this movie. Well, what did you think you got on IMDb? Greg, you start us off.
Speaker: Uh... So I would, I just want to say, i was really hoping it was about going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. It's not. So that has thrown me off a little bit. I'm, ah
Speaker: uh, uh, 7.2. Okay. Okay. Anna.
Speaker: Oh, I'll go higher then. Um, I'll go eight. Okay. What about you, Pete? We have 7.2 and 8.
Speaker: Yes. 9.5. Wow. A lot of big believers in Jason Bailey. He got a 7.1 on that one. Greg, once again, very close. Okay. i've tapped into the heart of the crowd. remember much about it, but it was fine.
Speaker: Oh, good. I'm sure. That's great. Shout out Jason Bailey. Come on the show. Question number five. Demonicus. Hmm. James is possessed by the spirit of a gladiator and slaughters his friends to bring the gladiator back from the dead.
Speaker: Demonicus. Anna, what do you think Demonicus got?
Speaker: He's a demonic gladiator. This is great. Yeah. Yeah. 4.6. 4.6. Okay. What about you, Pete? Um, yeah. four point six okay what about you pet um
Speaker: uh i'm gonna go i'm gonna go six point two go uh 6.2 6.2 all right greg about yourself this is tough i want to say 5.9 but it's so close to 6.2 but my guts have been working for me so i'm go with the guts 5.9 and i guess the point that one was 2.7 color me very curious but i wrote that one down if
Speaker: Question number six. Turning the corner. A coming of age comedy about a young man about to graduate college. The twist?
Speaker: He's a quadriplegic. Turning the corner. ah Pete, what do you think that one was rated? us Seven.
Speaker: Okay, okay. Greg, what about you?
Speaker: 4.6. All right. All right. Anna, how about yourself? One. That one was 7.3. Wow. Highest score on the list. Spoiler alert. Wow.
Speaker: Pete on the board. Question number seven. I've seen this one. The Frightening.
Speaker: On his first day at Hollow End High School, Corey Peterson discovers that a rash of murders is occurring on campus. Uh-oh. Soon, a battle emerges between jocks and geeks, and Corey must choose a side, directed by David DeCoto.
Speaker: Oh. Greg, what do you think this one got?
Speaker: All right. Five it is. Anna, how about yourself? 3.2. All right. All right. Mr. Pete?
Speaker: I'm going to go seven again. Lucky number 11. Well, if you had just halved it, you would have been right on the money. That was 3.5. Anna ties it up with Greg.
Speaker: Just two questions left to go. Question number eight. Oh, boy. Yeah, we got a barn burner, folks.
Speaker: Question number eight. Bleed.
Speaker: A young woman with murderous tendencies tries making new friends by joining an elite social club and in so doing becomes the target of a masked killer set on killing all her new friends.
Speaker: Bleed. Anna, what do you think? Bleed. 4.4. 4.4. Okay. Pete Spear. 3.2. 3.2. Okay. Okay. And Mr. Greg. 6.3. Pete gets the It's 3.5.
Speaker: Ooh. close.
Speaker: six point three pete gets the point it's three point five <unk>s Pete has a chance to tie it up for a three-way tie, everybody.
Speaker: o Either that or Anna or Greg takes it home. It all comes down to this.
Speaker: Dead and rotting. Okay. Three prankster buddies release the wrath of an ancient witch when they unwittingly become accomplices to the murder of her son.
Speaker: Scheming in anger, the witch seduces the three friends and then uses the men's own ill-born spawn to destroy them. I like this a lot. What was the name of this again?
Speaker: Dead and Rotting. Dead and Rotting. Pete, what do you think? What did Dead and Rotting get? That's a 7.5. Okay, okay. That's a very good guess. Greg, what do you think?
Speaker: I had it and it escaped me. 4.5. Okay. okay Okay. What about you, my dove? 2.5. Well, it looks like Greg gets the point. That was 4.1. Congratulations to Greg. Yeah. Oh, yes.
Speaker: so yeah Uh-oh, it's the Batty Awards.
Speaker: Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
Speaker: Congratulations to all the nominees.
Speaker: That's right. Congratulations to all our nominees, but especially our winners of tonight's Batty Awards. That's right. The Batty Awards. Those little awards we give out to those little moments, touches, details, people, places, and things that make a bad movie so good.
Speaker: Greg, why don't you hit us up with your inaugural Batty Awards? Okay. So first off, I do want to say that every time in this movie anybody mentions Dayton, I think of the Randy Newman song that was covered by Harry Nielsen called Dayton, Ohio, which is just like thely the lyric, the chorus is like real nice way to spend a day and date and date in Dayton, Ohio. And that's not, it's not a nice day in Dayton in this film. No, no. It's just so hilarious. It's this whimsical little thing in there in my brain every time.
Speaker: But my Batty Award, is going to my favorite Bone Crusher moment. Okay. Which is in that final fight, Goose runs across the ground and there's a metal plate that he kind of runs across. And then Bone Crusher just throws it off because he's in a hole under there. he's like, yeah! it's just like, what are doing down there? What you doing down there, Bone Crusher? There's a fight going But at the same time, he's out of his mind and I love Bone Crusher. I love Bone Crusher. Yeah.
Speaker: All-time great entrance. He's so good. He's so good. yeah Anna, do you have a Batty Award? i do I'm going to give my Batty Award to the beautiful and scenic Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum.
Speaker: Okay. Established in 1841, one of the oldest garden cemeteries in the U S um it's ah currently like 200 acres. It's huge. Yeah. And the, the Wright brothers are buried there.
Speaker: them Yeah. what What a beautiful, two wonderful things about this cemetery. Yeah.
Speaker: I'm going to give my baddie award just to one image that I saw in the opening credits when they're just showing still images, photographs. And it was just, I think the aesthetic of this film summed up in one single image, which was shuriken in an ashtray.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
Speaker: Pete, do you have a baddie award? I do. I mean, there's almost too much to celebrate yeah in in this movie. and Oh, sure. i mean, I'd written a few down and like they're all number one in my heart.
Speaker: um I would say that the the one that stands out to me, I mean, all the Bone Crusher stuff, of course. Yeah. crusher is and And I'll say if if you're curious for more, he the actor who plays Bone Crusher it is in the Manson family film. And it's it's three hours of of that actor who is oh god i should check just as compelling. it's it's you know it's It's been a while, but my memory is he continues to be excellent.
Speaker: And also wasn't in a lot of movies. So it's a limited field to pick from. That's true. i I do love in the Bone Crusher soliloquy, right before he says, I'm the baddest, you know, he, his voice cracks and he looks like he's about to cry.
Speaker: and there's this surge of emotion where he's just shoving it all the way down, way down and replacing it with bravado. you know, rush fueled bravado. And there's just so much in that moment that is, is it, it, it tells a lot without wasting any time on, ah on on telling you anything.
Speaker: It's wonderful. But the thing that, that I, the the, the person I want to give my award to is Mike King, the cinematographer. There's a shot after shot where it just, it doesn't have to be that good.
Speaker: And there's one in particular after Sandy gets off the phone and is going to meet goose at the train station. The camera is outside and it's a long zoom on the door and it just starts zooming back and it's zooming back through two different open windows of the car. And then all the way to the other side of the driver's side of the car, which Sandy then. runs around to gets in the car, drives away, all in this one continuous, fluid, beautiful shot.
Speaker: it's a you know it's It takes the cake for me. But there's so many incredible um incredible blockings and and everything that I assume come from Mike King's direction as a cinematographer.
Speaker: Really, really great. It's true. And you know what else is true, Pete? You've been a really great guest. Oh, shut up. Come on. Yes. Thank you for stepping up to the plate. We really appreciate you.
Speaker: and Do you have anything that you need to to plug? Do you have anything going on? No, just just encourage people to go to Dayton and check it out. um you know it's yeah it's It's kind of a long way since the kind of like, it looks like the zone in Stalker in this movie.
Speaker: Oh, yeah yeah, definitely. It's been decayed for hundreds of years and it's it's much prettier now. Well, good. I'm glad to hear it. Hang in there, Dayton. Yeah. Listeners, you hang in there till next week when we're going to be talking about a Valerian and the city of a thousand planets with AP from the podcast Dove Weather.
Speaker: ah So come check that out. That's going to be some wild stuff. Yeah. Well, you got your phone in your hand. Give us that five stars. Hit that subscribe, hit that follow and ah check out all our social media links. You can get them in the link tree in the show description.
Speaker: And ah until next week, be good and goodbye. Goodbye. Bye. Bye.
Speaker: It's bad to be bad, it's bad to be bad, and I guess it's understood that you would, if you could, and you know that you should, yes you know that you should.
