Transcript
Speaker: Ha ha ha ha
Speaker: Welcome back, everybody, to the Stakeouts and Shakedowns podcast. I'm really excited to be back. This is the second episode in a month because I fell behind in September and did my and Chad and I did our planned September episode at the first of October, but I didn't want to let October slip by without doing a spooky, scary Halloween episode. So I'm glad you're here for it. My name is Wes Clifton and I am the host of this podcast.
Speaker: Just an all around movie nerd who loves talking about movies and is really glad ah that you're all here. Hey, buddy, how's it going? i have a really exciting guest today one of my best friends a dude that i knew was go to be perfect for this movie because he's a big horror guy and i was like that's my october guy it's my good friend gabe borto hey buddy how's it going I'm doing great, Wes. How are you today?
Speaker: Man, I am just doing great. I've been traveling all weekend, as you know. I said I feel like I've been all over the place. i had My band had to go and play up in Virginia yesterday, and so then ah we stayed with my folks. So it's been a pretty action-packed weekend, but I made it back, and i'm I'm stoked to talk about this movie with you, buddy.
Speaker: I'm pretty jazzed myself. That's awesome. I'm i'm really excited. i'm I'm really glad you were here. I was like, Gabe has got to talk about this movie. This is this is a Gabe movie. um So, Gabe, I was going to just start off because I think, once again, we have a different guest on every time. I think it's just great for the listeners um to kind of get a better idea of who they're listening to. Maybe if they've listened to prior episodes by this point, they already have a sense about me.
Speaker: ah But let's give them a sense about you. What are some of your favorite movies? Well, as I said, I'm a big horror movie guy Well, as Wes said, um like I really like some of my favorite movies are like Suspiria and I like Critters a lot. um It's hard to in the general scope of the genre. It's hard to nail one exact movie.
Speaker: But I I have a few favorites like ah Evil Dead and Halloween, like Just a general gist. I like a lot of it. Yeah. i And I figured, like I said, you would go for some of the horror stuff. you know you are You're big a big horror fan.
Speaker: And ah you mentioned Suspiria, which is one that, of course, I always associate with you. And also you mentioned ah Critters. It's funny. In recent years, I've also come to associate you with movies about little monsters.
Speaker: but Yes. I do like a little monster movie. like i yeah I'm a big fan of Gremlins and Critters. and any, and munchies and things that. You're a ghoulies guy too, right?
Speaker: What? You're a ghoulies guy too, right? Oh, I'm a big ghoulies guy. That's what I thought. Yeah. And munchies, you and I watched that together. Yes. ah Which was interesting.
Speaker: ah For the crowd at home, it's not really a buddy cop movie, so probably not something I'll get to on this podcast, but you should really do yourselves a favor. If you want to, if you were like, what would gremlins be like if it was made on just a much lower budget?
Speaker: You should check out munchies. Yes, it was very low budget. And it's two sequels. Two sequels that it has. so um Which is one more than Gremlins.
Speaker: That is true. One more than Gremlins. So in a way, Munchies made a bigger impact on film than Gremlins. ah is That is correct. Yeah. All right, man. So next question for you. So ah do you have a favorite buddy cop film?
Speaker: i don't know if I necessarily have a favorite, but I remember really loving a lot of the Lethal Weapon movies when I was younger. Yeah, cool. I will i ah feel like Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop, that's kind of a trend people kind of – those are movies that we – they were just really in the atmosphere, I feel like, at a certain time. And that's – those are the ones that I feel like would draw people into the genre.
Speaker: And then, of course, a little later on, you hear a lot of people talk about, of course – Rush Hour and Bad Boys when you get into the 90s. But yeah, man, i'm I'm a big Lethal Weapon guy myself. You said the Lethal Weapon movies. Do you have a favorite of the Lethal Weapon movies?
Speaker: Lethal Weapon 2. Man, good choice. I like that. ah For some reason, I've always been really drawn to... I mean, i the first one's my favorite, but i I've always been really drawn to Lethal Weapon 3 for some reason. I feel like it's not as popular as some of the others, but i just there's something...
Speaker: nice about it. So I also, I think that's the one when, when Roger blows himself up on the toilet is part three. I'm not sure about that. All right, cool. And so final thing I wanted to ask you just because I think that it's, I always think it's nice when people are big movie fans, uh, if to, to see if they've seen anything lately that they think, uh, would be good for the listeners. So have you seen anything recently? doesn't have to be anything new that you might recommend for people listening at home.
Speaker: Well, movie I saw in theaters recently that I think uh, A good movie for anyone to watch, but not anyone, but for adults to watch is a movie called The Long Walk. It's based off a Stephen King short story. And yeah it it will it has a lot of emotion in it. It's somewhat hard to watch, but I think there's an overall good lesson about morality in the whole thing.
Speaker: So I've actually not seen that one yet. It's one I'm interested in, but I've not seen it yet. Is is it horror? Is it a horror film or is it one of those Stephen King things it's not? It can be considered horror.
Speaker: like it Like the whole aspect of the whole thing is terrifying. Like it's not, but it's not like, ooh, scary monsters. yeah like It's kind of like the world is a monster.
Speaker: Okay, interesting. Yeah, because, you know, Stephen King, he kind of, like, gets pigeonholed, and, like, I am a fan, like, obviously not as much as somebody like our our buddy Donnie or somebody like that, but, like, I am a Stephen King fan, and I do like his horror. Like, I love Salem's Lot and stuff like that, but he, you know, he also did the Bachman books. Like, I'm pretty excited to see this new um this new version of The Running Man that's coming out, and, you know... I'm really excited for that, because I was a big fan of The Running...
Speaker: The original Running Man movie with Arnold. Yeah, man, me too. And I was a big fan of the book too. was big I was big fan of the book. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. And I don't know if this one will be more like the book. So my thing is what you just said. I, as you know, I love the original Running Man movie.
Speaker: ah It's in a lot of ways not similar to the book, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's just not similar. But I am curious to see if this new version will be more similar to the the Richard Bachman, a.k.a. Stephen King novel.
Speaker: And I had like his Edgar Wright's directing it, right? Yes. Yeah, right. So Edgar Wright, like he has a pretty seamless track record with me besides like End of the World, which I thought was not horrible, but it wasn't like great. Yeah, i was. I think I'm there with you on that one.
Speaker: like it He has a pretty seamless track record with me, and he really impressed me with his last outing with Last Night in Soho. did That was one of my favorite movies of that year. yeah And it wasn't promoted in the in the right way.
Speaker: And it flopped at the box office, and I was really disappointed because essentially what and Edgar Wright gave us was a tribute to Giallo movies.
Speaker: Yeah, man. So I'm really actually glad that... I didn't mean to set that up, but I'm actually really glad you mentioned Last Night in Soho, because ah the trailer... Like it, it didn't appeal to me, but then by the end of the trailer, it did appeal to me and I didn't really know what to expect.
Speaker: And, and myself, you and your wife, uh, we all, we all went to see that together. And I remember like, I don't think any of us knew what to expect. And I sat there and watched what.
Speaker: in my mind was a masterpiece and i remember getting to the end of it and thinking like i'm really worried that they're not gonna love it and i looked at both of you guys and you guys were both like that was one of the best movies i've ever seen and it was just a really nice moment when i realized that like none of us knew what to expect but by the end of it we all just like really loved last night in soho i just think it's a masterpiece and like you i hate that it didn't get it's just desserts yeah And if anybody here has not seen Last Night in Soho and you like a good mystery, little little scary mystery movie, that is something you should definitely watch.
Speaker: Yeah. In fact, you know what? Go ahead. If you haven't seen it, go ahead and just pause us and just go watch that and then come back and listen to us because you're to have a great time watching Last Night in Soho. um Yeah. So that's awesome, man. And I'm glad we got around to that. And I'm glad that you like the new Stephen King. I should probably try to check that out.
Speaker: There's so many movies in theaters right now that i I really want to see. And I've just been so busy that I don't think I've been to see a new movie this whole month. So I will just say. Did you see The Monkey yet?
Speaker: No, man, no. That's another Stephen King movie you missed out on. I know, and that one is what? that what i I'm having a blank on guy's name. Perkins. Osgood Perkins. Yeah, Os Perkins. ah you know And I really liked Long Legs. you know It disturbed me, but I really liked it.
Speaker: so he He kind of shows his little... a osgood perkins shows a different side of himself with that film because a lot of him are not a lot of his stuff is known for like this serious tone and but like he kind of shows his fun like it's not funny but it's like campy corny ah chops you know like i'm into it like how a horror movie can be kind of corny, but great at the same time.
Speaker: yeah does that with this movie. Well, that sounds baller. I love a a horror movie that's both scary, but also kind of campy and cheesy. I think that's really cool. And and one thing kind of almost the opposite, it made me think is, you know, I loved weapons. I'm sure we've talked about this already. I loved weapons. Oh, I love that too.
Speaker: I loved Barbarian so much. And like, I didn't realize, and right now the the director's name escapes me. I'm sure you remember. But like, ah his name escapes me. But I didn't realize he was from um The Whitest Kids You Know.
Speaker: oh yeah. And like, he was the guy who played Abraham Lincoln in that famous sketch where he's like heckling from the the balcony, which always seen. ah Same guy.
Speaker: just was very, I was very impressed by that. I loved weapons. I, like I said, I haven't been to the theater. I haven't made it been so busy. ah So I don't have anything new to recommend. I will just say once again, anybody who's been listening is probably picking up on a trend for me ah that I love old weapons.
Speaker: super cheesy action movies, preferably ones that were that mostly found their life on VHS. ah So I did buy a movie called Cage and its sequel, Cage 2...the arena of death.
Speaker: And I watched both of those. ah The first one is from 89. The sequel is from 94 or 95, I think. And basically what it is, is somebody had the great idea to take Reb Brown, who I love, Lou Ferrigno, who I love, and put them in a movie that combines Of Mice and Men,
Speaker: with Bloodsport. that sounds fantastic. Yeah, it is it really is in its way. it's just It's so hard for me to go into what all that dynamic is, but between the two main characters, there's an Of Mice and Men dynamic, but then also they get looped into the secret world of underground cage fighting. so Oh, underground cage fighting. Pretty great. Oh yeah, underground cage fighting. Pretty There's definitely something very weird going on here.
Speaker: kage two dot dot dot the areta of death you'll do yourself a favor and you'll check it out but all right that's my recommendation we are going to take just a brief break and we're goingnna come back on the other side of that break and we're gonna be talking about tonight's movie which is a movie called dead heat
Speaker: He's dead. But Detective Bigelow
Speaker: is bringing him back alive.
Speaker: We have something on the monitor, Captain. That's OK. Don't get up. Told you not to get up. Now.
Speaker: He's got 12 hours to solve the toughest murder case of his career. His own. What is this thing? Very ugly.
Speaker: Sit down! Remember the good old days when guns killed people?
Speaker: That's it. From now on, a vegetarian.
Speaker: you fight this thing? Maybe we could drown it in A1 sauce.
Speaker: You shoot them, they don't die.
Speaker: You can't keep a good cop dead.
Speaker: All right, we are back. And tonight's movie ah is a 1988 mix and mash of genres ah called Dead Heat.
Speaker: um It is, to me, a really kind of crazy, kind of bonkers, but pretty fun, pretty fun flick. i I particularly loved this movie.
Speaker: I am so glad to hear that. You texted me the other day and you were like, I love this movie. And I was I was really glad about that because you never know, like somebody. And, you know, if you hadn't liked it, maybe we could have a great discussion that way.
Speaker: But I always love it when somebody loves a movie. So that is awesome. um So ah just to start off telling the audience a little bit about this movie, I thought I would throw out.
Speaker: Well, let me just give some some. basic stats about the film. ah The director of this film was a guy named Mark Goldblatt. The score, I always like to pay attention to the composer. The score was done by Ernest Troost.
Speaker: ah The writer was Terry Black. It was produced by David Helpern and Michael L. Meltzer. ah It stars Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, Darren McGavin, Lindsay Frost, the great Vincent Price, ah and Robert Picardo, among many others.
Speaker: The release date for this film was May the 1988. The budget I had to get from the commentary track, they said it the budget was $5.4 million all in. I think they said that meant that included like ah you know paying the actors and everything else. but then they say i don't know the terms as much, but they said that under that it was $4.5 million. But $5.4 million was ah the budget for this film.
Speaker: And its box office, from but from what I could tell, was $3.5 million. So it did not earn back its budget, um making it an unsuccessful film, at least theatrically. Which is a shame. I have a feeling this movie's life is really one of those ones that's that's from home video, though, is my feeling from this movie. i Rotten Tomatoes, it's funny, this movie did do better on Rotten Tomatoes than the last movie we talked about on this podcast, which was The Glimmer Man.
Speaker: ah This movie had the same critical critical rating as The Glimmer Man, 11% critics, ah but it did have 48% audience score as ah compared to audience score. uh, on Rotten Tomatoes for the Glimmer Man. So I did notice that this movie, uh, at least outpaced the Glimmer Man in, in the hearts of audiences.
Speaker: and so yeah, the plot description for this movie, I'm just going to read it from the back of the box here. Cause I did purchase this movie on 4k from vinegar syndrome because I was like, you know what?
Speaker: I need that. Um, Detectives Doug Bigelow and Roger Mortis, get it, Roger Mortis, get it, ah have just tried and failed to take down a ring of master thieves who have been targeting high-end jewelry dealers.
Speaker: While orchestrating a massive siege, the thieves are violently eliminated, one blown apart and the other crushed. While being autopsied, the forensic pathologist makes an inexplicable discovery.
Speaker: The dead men were already dead before being killed. Yeah. In other words, they were zombies. With little information to go on besides the presence of a strange man-made substance in the cadaver's flesh, Bigelow and Mortis attempt to piece together the mystery, which eventually leads them to a chemical plant wherein Mortis, true to his name, winds up killed by a hulking zombie.
Speaker: But who's better to fight zombie criminals than a zombie cop? Dead heat. Listen... I don't know what else you needed to tell people to get them to the movie theater, but this's that that sounds like a winner to me. Yeah, me too.
Speaker: When I looked this movie up on Wikipedia, the the genre as listed was, and I quote, buddy cop action zombie comedy film. So i was like, perfect.
Speaker: Perfect. Like, listen, it's the 80s. Everything's just flying around. We got drugs flying around. Everybody's into the hair, the hair rock and stuff like that.
Speaker: And everybody's just going nuts. Why not a zombie buddy cop action comedy? Why not? So I was watching one of the um behind the scenes features. It was ah an archival featurette.
Speaker: And Joe Piscopo, who played Doug Bigelow, one of the aforementioned buddy cops, ah was he it seems like he had a really great time on this movie. And he was describing it. And he said that it was Robocop meets Lethal Weapon meets Night of the Living Dead.
Speaker: I have to agree with Joe Piscopo on this one. Yeah, I do too. And I was like, what a great way to sum that movie up. It's got all the buddy cop stuff from Lethal Weapon. It kind of has a RoboCop feel with like this cop who got killed and coming back. Because i I never really thought about it before, but in a way, that's what RoboCop is, right? It's a cop who gets killed having to come back and essentially solve his own murder in a way.
Speaker: That's true. and then a night It's about a cop that we just wanted a day off. and And when he died, they brought him in the work anyways. Yeah, right. I know can't can't catch a break. Poor guy. But I never thought about that really either. The similarity there between this and the plot of this. And then also, you know, obviously the Living Dead because of all the the crazy um zombie stuff. So, um Mo, I guess my first question for you is, what's your history with this film? Had you seen it before? do you have any history with this movie?
Speaker: i have never seen that i never seen or or heard of this film before. And when you assigned it to me, i so was it piqued my interest because of the whole zombie thing.
Speaker: But then I saw Joe Piscopo was in it. And then I also saw saw that the great Vincent Price is in this movie. And that really blew me out of the water. And what a treat to have a buddy cop zombie movie with Vincent Price in it around this time of year to watch.
Speaker: Yeah, man. I'm glad you appreciated that too. Vincent Price is one of my all-time favorite actors. ah He just seemed like such a great dude. Like everything I've ever read about the man, I just, I don't know. I just, I've always been a really big fan of Vincent Price and I just really was happy to see him in this movie.
Speaker: um And you said Joe Piscopo, so you're ah you're a Joe Piscopo guy, or you just thought maybe he would do good in the role? I thought he would do good in the role. Yeah. I don't know a lot of other roles from him. The main thing I think of for him is... Did you ever see that movie Sidekicks?
Speaker: Yes. that that's That's what I recognize. Yeah. Right. He plays the... He as essentially plays the Martin Cove ah part, the bad guy sensei in Sidekicks. all Right. And he's very similar, except for a lot meaner. He's a lot meaner in that than he is in this, but ah just kind of a loud mouthed guy. But yeah, that's the main reason why i recognize him too. ah so So this is the first episode of this podcast where I too had not seen the film.
Speaker: um My... when I started this podcast and I was making a list of buddy cop movies, I recalled that I had seen, um you know, dead heat mentioned, I had seen the poster. I had some basic idea of what it was.
Speaker: And I was like, okay, cool. Wouldn't it be great to do that for October? Like for Halloween, as far as I know, the only like straight up, horror comedy slash buddy cop movie. ah There's a few others that could kind of sort of squeeze in there, but this was the one that I thought that'll be a great October movie. So I actually had never seen it before either. and i had no idea what to watch. I mean, what to expect when it came in for the watch.
Speaker: I will say when I sat down and I saw that New World ah new world Home Video or New World Pictures logo pop up and I heard that kind of 80s-ish music, I immediately was internally prepared for a good time. I will say that.
Speaker: Oh, i ah soon as soon as this movie starts, you know you're in for a ride. Yeah, it's just got that, like, like I said, the New World logo always, like, gets me in the mood for something I'm going enjoy.
Speaker: And then that kind of, like, that just kind of, like, cheeseball-y 80s music. I don't know. im I'm a big sucker for it. So i instantly was like, this feels like... I've just been to the video store and I, and I'm sitting down for a, for a fun night to watch a movie. So I was pretty excited ah to start watching it. And then I've seen it twice at this point. I watched it one time earlier in the month then I watched it again earlier this week ah to kind of get it back in my brain. Cause it's funny how, I don't know what it says about me, but it's funny how I had already forgotten so much about the movie in just that brief time.
Speaker: So I did, I did a little rewatch of it. And and honestly, I think I liked it better. on a second watch than I did the first watch. I just feel like I kind of knew what to expect. And I just, I had more fun the second time than the first time.
Speaker: Like I, I, for the first time i watched it last weekend and like, When Wes invited me to come onto the podcast, I knew it was going to be something horror adjacent.
Speaker: i And when he when I started watching this movie, I'm just like, wow, Wes really knows me. Well, that's good, man. It makes me it makes me feel good to to be able to nail the right movie for somebody. I just like had ah i had a feeling, because my original plan was to bring you on for an earlier episode, but like when I started looking at it, I was like, nah, I'm Gabe is the guy for for Dead Heat. So I'm actually really glad you enjoyed it.
Speaker: ah So, yeah, I guess we've already kind of cleared my second question, which was kind of what did you think of this film overall? Like, what did you, you know, what were your your impressions having, and you know, going into it here?
Speaker: Like, I really enjoyed the um the practical effect zombies that they had in the movie. have a big fan of practical effects. Yeah. and I liked the... um the this like the The chirping of the two buddy cops together. I really enjoyed it these two together. It really made for a good time. And um like, as I said...
Speaker: This movie is like um me personally, I think I'm going to get a 4K of this too, because this is a movie that has a ton of rewatchability in my eyes. Yeah. Yeah. I've rewatched it already in the same month and I enjoyed it more the second time.
Speaker: It, uh, and obviously vinegar syndrome will never let you down. They have a, they have a great 4K, uh, version of this. So, um, You know, it's funny that you mentioned the the effects, though, because so this movie and I feel bad because I actually um meant to write down both the guys, ah one one guy who did the visual effects and one guy who did the makeup effects. And I ended up only writing down the makeup effects. So whoopsie.
Speaker: ah But the the guy who did the makeup effects, like the practical effects, that thing is a guy named Steve Johnson. And it may or may not surprise you to know that he immediately before doing Dead Heat had done Night of the Demons.
Speaker: This does not surprise me. Yeah. one by I was really excited when I heard that though. Cause once again, I know you and I are both big fans of night of the demons Oh, I love Night of the Demons.
Speaker: Yeah, it's ah it's a great movie for this time of year. And so I was pretty pretty excited about that. Also, another fun fact about Steve Johnson, he created Slimer for the Ghostbusters movie. Oh, really? Yeah.
Speaker: So pretty good pedigree on this guy. ah When he um did Dead Heat, it was the second movie he had done since kind of breaking off on his own and starting his own. ah effects company, the first one being Night of the Demons. And then he said he pretty much immediately went to do Dead Heat.
Speaker: So I just thought that was pretty cool, man. And and like you, I was really impressed by the the the practical effects. I'm the same way, man. So CGI has come around now to where I find it more tolerable than I did when it first was a thing like, you know, late nineties, early two thousands, especially early two thousands. It just got so people were so excited to have CGI and they used it everywhere and and it just wasn't there yet. It didn't look great.
Speaker: Uh, And so now it doesn't bother me as's as as much as it back did back then. But I still really appreciate the artistry of practical effects, especially a zombie movie. I think just having been such a big fan of what Savini did in the Romero movies and stuff like that, like, I just want to see what you can do with a practical effect zombie.
Speaker: Like, it's... Like a practical practical effects is an art form. Yeah. Like even but whether it comes to Savini or the Chiodos brothers, like it's a true art form.
Speaker: And I feel like sometimes with the CGI, like it could, it can like can be too much. Like you need to have, like for me to appreciate a CGI, I need a mix of practical in with it.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that works a lot better for me too. And I don't know if that's just you know my own personal bias towards loving movies from you know the 80s, early 90s, that kind of thing. But I just really think that helps it too. It just grounds it a little more for me to have the practical effects. So I was really impressed with this. I did find out, even though, man, it makes me feel so guilty that I don't remember his name right now.
Speaker: ah But the guy who did the visual effects for this film, all the lightning and all that stuff, ah he his prior thing is he had worked a lot on um title sequences for films, and he had created the title sequence for one of my top five films of all time, The Terminator.
Speaker: so Really? Yeah, I need to look that guy's name up. I feel so guilty not knowing it for the podcast. ah But hey, had a big weekend, so it is what it is. But yeah, so a pretty big...
Speaker: pretty big ah resume for these two people. So I thought that pretty cool. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, so this movie, um it kind of jumps right in. i don't remember exactly where I think it just it just starts with the robbery, right? It starts with charts with the robbery.
Speaker: So I think we actually start in the car with the bad guys and they're going to rob this place and they're wearing these like crazy looking masks. I was like, what's up those masks? Almost like bondage masks.
Speaker: Yeah, I thought that at the time. I was like they look like, they look like bondage masks that they've chosen to wear, but they only cover the top of their heads. They also kind of remind me of the Executioner at the end of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.
Speaker: and when he's Yeah. And he like leans down over the dude and spits on the kid's face. whatever It just reminded me of that guy. Oh, by the way, just to... because we're going to be totally transparent with the audience here. Sort of like on episode three, I mentioned I was having a lot of connection episodes. We're having ah connection problems. We're having connection issues tonight.
Speaker: And we just had a ah little moment where I had to go and reset my ah internet. But in the interim, I was able to find out the name of our visual effects guy, whose name was Ernest Farino. So just to give credit where credit's due, visual effects guy who worked on the title sequence, the Terminator and all that, Ernest Farino. So bravo, Mr. Farino.
Speaker: Um, so yeah, we go to the jewelry store and basically these guys just run in and they rob the place and they start shooting up the place and all these cops show up and they, uh, they're trying to kill these guys. And that's when we first run into our buddy cop duo of Mortis and Bigelow.
Speaker: And, uh, You know, they're just, they're riding along, I think it's Santa Monica Boulevard or something like that. And one of them's eating a hot, like there's definitely like a straight a straight man. There's a straight man and a funny guy. Well, I wrote that down because I was like, in some of the movies we've watched for this podcast, I kind of have to like debate like who is who sometimes.
Speaker: And this one, they just like wanted to make it very clear who was who. One guy's wearing a suit and tie. The other one's wearing a leather jacket and eating a hot dog while they go down the road. Also, one thing I thought was funny, and I i noticed it on Second Watch, when they get the call to go to the jewelry store robbery, they um ah it becomes apparent quickly that they have had a string of these robberies, and they're calling them the Cash and... What was Cash and Dash?
Speaker: Cash and Dash Boys? Is that what they call them? Something like that. The Cash and Dash... crew ah But anyway, so they they make a quick U-turn and they and they go around to the took back to the jewelry store.
Speaker: And when he makes his U-turn, Bigelow's he squeezes his ah his hot dog and his bun like shoots off. So then he goes back to eat the hot dog and there's no bun on it. I don't know why this like that kind of like cheesy humor just really, really appealed to me in a way.
Speaker: So they get to the yeah the crime scene and they have the typical moment where like they show up and they've got the ah the higher ranking officer played by Robert Picardo, who played the doctor on Star Trek Voyager.
Speaker: So was pretty glad to see him. But he he comes over and he's, you know, giving them the business. And you can tell that these two cops are, they kind of play a little too close to the vest. Well, not close to the vest, close to the edge sometimes. And ah theyre they're trying to figure out what's going on.
Speaker: And then the the bad guys come out of the store and immediately like pull guns. And so the cops start shooting them and they get shot a bunch of times and they don't die and they don't go down. And that's when we realized that like something's up with these bad guys.
Speaker: And this scene is truly just, A rainstorm of bullets. Yeah. Which was right up my alley. I was really glad to see it. i like and There is no shortage of action in this scene and gunfire and things that could go around go wrong. Cops dying everywhere.
Speaker: Just... Yeah. Unbridled carnage. It starts off. It's a very violent shootout to start this movie off. And one of the things that happens. So then, you know, Mortis and Bigelow being our our main cops who are going to do things their own way.
Speaker: ah They decide that they they're going to borrow. Actually, I think Mortis, who's our straight man, pretty much. Uh, borrows, uh, Picardo's car, or out Picardo's car. And he's like, um and he's like, you can't borrow it. He's like, thanks. He like grabs the keys anyway.
Speaker: And he gets in the car and he gets a shotgun, like a pump shotgun. Oh, another thing I noticed was that, um, just to let you know, who's who, uh, Mortis has an old school revolver. Uh, and, Bigelow of course has a semi-automatic pistol. So, uh, it's another way you could tell who is, who's the, the rogue cop and who's not. But so, uh, Mortis is the straight man of the room.
Speaker: Yes. Right. And so, uh, he gets in the car though. Now he's got a shotgun, like a sawed off shotgun and he drives past and he starts like unloading on these guys. But once again, they don't go down.
Speaker: Uh, then, Bigelow, one of the bad guys pulls out a hand grenade and he's going to throw a hand grenade and Bigelow shoots him in the hand and he drops the hand grenade and makes like a weird face.
Speaker: So the hand grenade blows up. And so that's one of the guys dead. And then Mortis swings back around and just rams the other one with his car. And that's how the the second one goes down as he gets, he just gets rammed with his car and trapped between him and another car.
Speaker: And after that, just fast forward to the, To the meeting with the angry police chief. Yes. The stereotypical meeting with the angry police chief. Yes, and I loved it. You love to see it. I love a scene where the two buddy cops are getting railed out by the police chief.
Speaker: ah This guy, he ah well, he did great on screen, I thought. ah What's his name? I wrote it down. I wrote down too many notes for this for this movie. Mel Stewart was the name of the actor playing the police chief.
Speaker: But interestingly in the commentary, they said, Hey, this was the very first day of shooting. And B they said that Stuart, like for some reason, just had a really hard time with his lines. And so they had to piece that, that whole scene together.
Speaker: Uh, but it came out pretty seamless. You wouldn't have known. i i wouldn't have known. Yeah. They had to piece it together though. Apparently also, uh, while I'm looking back at my notes from this part of the movie, the, the people making the film, the filmmakers, the director, the writer, everything, they were talking about it.
Speaker: They said that, um, that, uh, um, ah Treat Williams. was a hard time remember his name. Treat Williams, who played Roger Mortis. They said he took this movie really seriously and he would like phone them up in the middle of the night with ideas and things about his character. Apparently he took it very seriously being in this movie, which I appreciate that.
Speaker: um But yeah, so they go in, they get chewed up by the chief, but then he kind of like lets them off the hook because he got, they got the job done when, when nobody else can get the job done. And they, they go back to always the case with these types of movies. Oh yeah, of course.
Speaker: And they're going back to their office. And of course, Piscopo takes a moment to hit on a nun when they're going through. He's like, takes it. There's like a nun in there for no, no explained reason that he takes a moment to flirt with her.
Speaker: And then they go back to the office and he's throwing darts and they're just talking about the case. And this is how we know that there've been a string of cash and dash robberies, And that they've all they don't know how many people are in the gang because the robbers, the descriptions never match from time to time.
Speaker: And then they start talking about, you know, what's going on here? Why are these guys able to survive all these bullet wounds? And they speculate that it could be drugs or whatever. And Piscopo is like, I don't know, bullet wounds.
Speaker: And so they're they're not really sure. And I think if memory serves, that's when they get the call um to go to the autopsy. Is that right? That's when they go to the autopsy. Yeah, that's when they go to the autopsy.
Speaker: Yeah. um And so then they go to the autopsy, which this is another scene where there's like a really messed up corpse on the table. And they're like having this conversation that comes back throughout the movie about how, what would it be like if you knew when your death day was going to be, and you could throw a big death day party.
Speaker: And Piscopo says you could get ripped and invite all your friends. And so they're like talking over this corpse about all this. And then the the the female, would call her the love interest of this movie, at least treat Williams's love interest, Rebecca Smithers. She's one of the coroners and she comes in and she has got some interesting things to say about these two dead robbers.
Speaker: ah It turns out that they are they they are already dead. They've been dead for days, and she has seen them before. She did their previous autopsy earlier in the week.
Speaker: Things are starting to get a bit weird around here. Weird. And so then we meet another guy, Dr. McNabb. ah He is, I guess, the senior coroner. I don't really understand how coroner, ah medical examiner hierarchies work, but he's the the senior guy there. He's her boss. And he comes in and I don't know about you. I had a yeah he was off from the very moment he came on. I thought i was. Oh, yeah.
Speaker: But, you know, I couldn't tell for most of the film if he was actually shady or if he was just like supposed to be a really obvious red herring. Like it took me minute be like, is he really shady or is he he just we supposed to think he's suspicious?
Speaker: Well, the moment he walks in and she starts telling him these things and she shows him physically the the markings of the previous autopsy and doesn't believe her. That's I'm like.
Speaker: Is this like he like, is he really a coroner? yeah yeah Right. Like, I'm like, what is this guy's deal? Also, that's another thing I was going to say. Everybody takes things pretty cash in this movie. Like anytime they find out that like somebody's back from the dead, they're pretty, they're pretty cool and collected about it for the most part.
Speaker: Oh yeah. Much more than I would be. Yeah. But so like, I'll say, I'll say this. did Did the plot of this movie, did you find the plot of this movie perplexing?
Speaker: i I did in places. Um, a little bit. I think. Go ahead. No, go ahead. I was just because I think mostly for me, it was in terms of the the the rules about the zombies was a little right. Perplexing.
Speaker: Like, because like there'll be points in times where like. The zombies would be like, like, oh, so almost like almost like just. Just like.
Speaker: Kind of just. They just beat up any anybody around them, like real zombies. like They didn't care who was around them. They were killing them. But then there was times they were like, oh, I was resurrected, and I'm speaking in full sentences.
Speaker: And like what in what are the rules of the zombie? you know like every Every zombie movie a... a core rule, has core rules. yeah This was just throwing that out the window. It was just like, we're resurrecting people.
Speaker: Some of them are are crazy and incoherent. Some of them are just like me and you They're just kind of decaying. Yeah, I couldn't i couldn't make heads or tails of of the the the rules, like you said, because I'm used to that. I like really nerd out on like the differences between zombies in A Night of Living Dead or A Return of the Living Dead. or you know I as a nerd out on that stuff, ah the Fulci zombies and stuff.
Speaker: I will say, though, I made a little time. I didn't watch all of it, but I watched a good portion of the deleted scenes, and a lot of what they deleted from this movie were explanations about – once again, it wouldn't have made it make total sense – but were like moments where they tried to explain what was going on with the zombies.
Speaker: And I guess the filmmakers just thought, nah, cut it out. We need this movie to come in at a cool 85 minutes or however long it was. It was not 85. Yeah. It was less than an hour and a half. It was less than an hour. It was a quick watch.
Speaker: Yeah, which I love. I um really appreciate that in a movie that just gets up and goes. ah But so they decided to cut that out. They also cut out some scenes that I think they thought were a little too much of a downer. There were some scenes which like didn't fit the mood of this happy-go-lucky romp, where and like especially later on, there were a couple of scenes where they decided to cut them, and I have a feeling they were like, nah, this is going to really drag the mood down. and um But so I do think it might have, if they had thrown those back in, it might have...
Speaker: it might've made it make a little more sense. It might not have made it make a little more sense. Um, But yeah, so then they leave there. Oh, that's when we find out that Mortis and ah Rebecca Smithers apparently have had a romantic relationship that has gone awry.
Speaker: and they have this little moment, and she tells him that she found something suspicious. It's some kind of chemical, a man-made chemical in their bodies that's not often used anymore. And they track down this place that's still using it and still distributing it, which is a place called Dante Pharmaceuticals.
Speaker: I think she got a... she found out that they were getting large shipments of it. So my first thought was Dante Pharmaceuticals. Is this named in tribute to Joe Dante?
Speaker: Possibly. Yeah, I just, I don't know. i believe that. That's my canon anyway. I couldn't find any confirmation that that was the case, but I was like, nah, this has got to be named for for the great Joe Dante.
Speaker: ah Because now I feel like I should look this up. Did Dante do the howling? um Hold on. I can look that up.
Speaker: I feel like I wish i had I could cue the Jeopardy theme song.
Speaker: I want to say he did... Yeah, he did The Howling um in 1981. Great werewolf movie. So there were several people ah in this movie who had worked on The Howling.
Speaker: Several people who... They actually... The filmmaker said that they met Robert Picardo on the set of The Howling. So there were several people who had worked on The Howling. So I don't know. They also did... He also did Inner Space. Have you ever seen that movie? Oh, man, yeah. I have definitely seen that movie. And Small Soldiers.
Speaker: Yeah, he I mean, he did so many movies. Dante's, you know, Gremlins, Gremlins 2. um But I just, I felt i felt like this would move that place was named in honor of him. I couldn't i couldn't find it confirmed, but that's that's my canon anyway, ah that it was named in honor of Joe Dante. So they go to um Dante Pharmaceuticals, and they walk in, and they see this guy behind the desk reading a nudie mag.
Speaker: ah Yeah. They try to get his attention, but he's not interested in two cops. He's only interested in his nudie mag. But they finally get his attention. know, because that's what normal people do. They read nudie mags on the job.
Speaker: On the job and not under the desk. like Right. Just like straight up, just sitting there. He's the guy at reception. He's at reception reading a nudie mag. Perfect. ah The 80s were a wild time to be at work.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. So then they call they call up um Oh, shoot. The actress's name is Lindsay Frost. Randy James. Randy James. She is the ah PR person for Dante Pharmaceuticals. And she gives them a little tour around. This place is kind of shady.
Speaker: ah that But like she's trying to convince them, like, oh, we're just a regular pharmaceutical company. And they're just about to leave, but the the buddies start snooping. ah Bigelow actually starts snooping around and he comes into this room and there's this weird machine and there's like a tarp draped over something in the middle of it. And when he raises the tarp, what should up appear but a really, really weird looking zombie.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. I could not figure out what that dude's deal was. He's like a big, huge biker, but he has like three faces. It gave me big trouble in Little China vibes. In a big way. In a big way. I could easily see that. Yes, he had he looked like something that would have jumped out in Lopan's mansion or whatever. Right.
Speaker: But yeah, he was he was all whacked out. So then they have this big fight scene and with where Bigelow's fighting this big, huge, weird-looking zombie. And then Mortis gets trapped in ah in a room where they they they use it to...
Speaker: basically so africa what they call a suffocation chamber. That doesn't seem right. That seems to use it. They use it to euthanize animals, animals. Right. So he gets in there and somehow he gets closed in and we see this mysterious set of black gloved hands, pull the switch and drain the oxygen out of the room.
Speaker: And it causes him to cease to live. ah So he has passed away. So when, Then we next see um his girlfriend, Rebecca Smithers, shows up because she's medical examiner or a coroner or whatever. i get confused on the difference. I think there is one.
Speaker: ah And Bigelow's sitting there, and he's actually very sad in that moment. We get to see Joe Dante's dramatic chops a little. He's very sad that he couldn't save his friend. um yeah But they realize pretty quickly that this machine is a resurrection device, and they just very cavalierly put their friend on there and bring him back to life.
Speaker: And he wakes up and he thinks that like he just passed out for a couple seconds. but Yeah. Yeah. He seems to feel great. And once again, Dr. McNabb comes back in and he just seems really to accept all this very well.
Speaker: ah You know, they find out that dude doesn't have a heartbeat and he's cold to the touch. um And McNabb's like, well, I got to go deal with these two actual dead bodies and just leaves. It's like, OK, OK. You seem to be taking this pretty well.
Speaker: So they realize that something's going on because ah Roger Mortis accidentally cuts himself, but he doesn't bleed. He has like a weird sparkly thing going on in his veins. But I don't think they ever explained that. Did they ever explain that?
Speaker: don't think they ever really explained that. Yeah. But they got down the brass tacks when they checked his heartbeat and they did not hear one. Right. No heartbeat. And they said he felt cold.
Speaker: um So then he i think maybe goes back to the coroner's office for a little bit. And she basically explains that he's on a ticking clock. ah Somehow she gets into their files at the, at Dante pharmaceuticals. And she's like, you've got about 10 to 12 hours before you basically just decompose to nothing.
Speaker: And I think you are to stay with me so I can run some tests. And he's like, no, I got to go figure this out. He's got to go solve his own murder. Yeah. And so Bigelow, he's along for the ride. So they're they're going.
Speaker: And I think what they do next is they go to um confront the PR lady from Dante Pharmaceutical, ah Randy James, at her home. I believe they go out to her home. Actually, no.
Speaker: They make a quick stop because Mortis is not looking great. And so he stops at the store to get some cosmetics to make his face look a little better. He yeah puts on a little lipstick. He puts on little lipstick to make his lips look more lifelike.
Speaker: ah I gotta be honest, that was like a really dated moment. You can tell it was from the 80s, but seeing him with the lipstick when he gets out and she looks at him all funny, it was actually a pretty funny moment to me when she looks at him and he's got the lipstick on. i actually kind of like that.
Speaker: Yeah. So they go into her place and she's kind of trying to deny things. Well, it turns out that she is the daughter of a recently deceased rich guy, local rich guy who has recently died.
Speaker: ah ah Loudermilk, his name was Loudermilk, author Loudermilk. And he's played by the great Vincent Price. And we see a video of him. Which is such a treat in a movie like this.
Speaker: I was immediately so happy to see Vincent Price. And he he explains, you know, that he, we see a video basically where he's like, my darling princess, you know, I'm going to leave to you or whatever. And so it turns out that she explains that like he, i don't know if he actually owned Dante Pharmaceutical, but he was like the the kind of power behind it. And they were sort of his like personal, like,
Speaker: lab place like if he needed if he wanted to research and look into something they would do it for him i don't know if he was the owner of the benefactor or what but he's kind of the man but but he has died recently and they're talking about all this and about this time one of my favorite things in the whole movie happened um which is these two zombies burst in and they are not wanting brains or blood or guts they have machine guns Machine gun zombies. I wrote down machine gun zombies in my notes. It was something that I'd been missing my whole life and I didn't even know about it.
Speaker: Like, I needed that. I think that machine gun zombies have entered the pantheon of things that I love right beside of motorcycle ninjas. Things that I didn't know I needed in my life, but i ah just now I know that I couldn't be without them.
Speaker: Right. And so I just love this scene. And there's once again, this whole scene, this is another part where I feel like the rules get a little blurred because we just found out that Mortis doesn't bleed when he cut himself. But now these zombies shoot him up with a machine gun and those bullet holes on his shirt sure are bloody.
Speaker: Oh yeah, they are. yeah I was like, I thought he wasn't supposed to bleed. Yeah. And that's when I kind of had to just be like, okay, we're just along for the ride. No big deal. ah So they had this whole fight scene where they they, once again, they have to take out these zombies who are, these are of the mindless variety you were talking about earlier. They look all up and they're like shooting the place up with with machine guns. And eventually they end up ah throwing one of them in a pool and dropping some kind of electrical device in there. I don't remember. And it and it electrocutes him.
Speaker: And then Bigelow just stabs one of them through the stomach and that does it. So bullets, I guess, don't work. But like, if you get a long enough spike and you stab a guy through the stomach, that's going to take these zombies out, I suppose.
Speaker: Oh yeah. So ah from that point on, I feel like the plot kind of like kicks into overdrive. i leave, i miss certain parts of it. Um,
Speaker: And correct me if I'm wrong, but the next thing I really remember is that they ask Randy James about this chemical, which I can't remember the name of it, but it's it's the thing that they suspect is being used in these zombies. And she says she they made a big delivery of it to Chinatown recently.
Speaker: Yes. And we have another one of my favorite scenes here. They go to this butcher shop run by a guy named Thule. And when they walk in there is a um ah guy like butchering some some poultry, I believe, or butchering some kind of meat in this Chinese butcher shop.
Speaker: And did you recognize this guy? I did not recognize him. I think he may... He seems familiar, but i can't I couldn't put my finger on it. So this guy is Professor Tanaka.
Speaker: um You will definitely know him, from if nothing else, from the fact that he was Sub-Zero in The Running Man, the original Running Man movie. Yes, yes. He was a wrestler, and he um shows up a lot in... um in like old action movies and stuff, usually as some kind of henchman.
Speaker: ah I believe he has a role as a henchman in, uh, revenge of the Ninja, one of my all time favorite movies, but he shows up a lot as that kind of like henchman, but he had been a wrestler before that. I just always really think I love to see professor Tanaka and something. So he's here once again, playing a henchman.
Speaker: Uh, and they, uh, the guy fool comes out. He's this guy and he's, uh, once again, immediately shady. And, they kind of start asking him questions he doesn't want to answer and so he turns on this device that reanimates basically every dead animal in the butcher shop yeah then there and some of them are beheaded it beheaded and are walking around and this is where the rules once again are blurred because sometimes if you decapitate the zombie or destroy the brain the
Speaker: the zombie will cease to be living. But in this case, they had full size cows with no heads running around. Dude, that full on butchered cow that comes, that busts its way out of the freezer is one of my favorite things I've seen in a movie in a long time. Like just attacks them. This like headless, hoofless,
Speaker: butchered out cow corpse. Uh, but they've also got zombie chicken heads and like, at one point there's zombie Buffalo wings. i don't know if they're Buffalo wings, but they're like chicken wings that are ready to be cooked. And they're just like flapping on their own. I don't know, man. I really, I really liked that scene. And for some reason that scene, maybe it's because it's in Chinatown, but that scene know brought me back to big trouble little China in a way as well, just because of how ridiculous it was.
Speaker: But I just really loved that that whole butcher shop scene. It was just so like wacky and over the top. And then eventually, they like you said about playing hard loop hard and fast with the the rules are loose or whatever, with the rules, they ah they shoot out this device.
Speaker: ah Yet again, more ah lightning coming out of this thing. They shoot out this device, and all of a sudden, that takes care of all these zombie animals. they all and they And they're all dead again. Yeah. They're dead again. Once again, they're back.
Speaker: Oh, and, but I should mention that, uh, professor Tanaka comes at them with a, uh, with a meat cleaver and they shoot him one time and he goes down and Bigelow's like, Oh, people are dying from bullets now. And, and Mortis says, well, they're not, we're not all zombies. So I kind of like, he was surprised. So then they, they like do some investigating and I gotta be honest, this is the part where the plot kind of like starts running together in my head. Like what comes next?
Speaker: Um, Do you remember exactly what comes next? I think they go to um that girl's house. Is this when they go... ah can't remember if they go to the...
Speaker: to the crypt first. Cause like Loudermilk, they go to investigate his crypt at some point. Yeah. I think that's what happens. My bad. Yeah. So I think they, I just can't remember if they do that or if they go to the library first, they do one of, I think they go to the library and they're, and Oh, because they found that's right. Because in the butcher shop, they find this list of what they think are like, uh, the initials of people like rich people who have recently died and their death dates.
Speaker: So they go to the library to research their, um, their obituaries. That's what, that's what it is. And so they go to the library to look up their obituaries. And this is where, um, they drop one of these really deep lines. For some reason, this movie, like every so often would drop a, uh, a line where i was like, wow, that line is very deep and existential for this movie.
Speaker: And he, all of a sudden Mortis gets really depressed when they're looking at these obituaries. Uh, and he says, um, Let's see. I had it. Oh, he says, I can't live a lifetime in six hours.
Speaker: And then um Bigelow says, nobody's got all the time they need, Roger. Nobody. And I was like, wow, that that's deep. like That is deep. That's a little deeper than I was expecting.
Speaker: And so then Roger has this moment where he like it occurs to him that he's not going to be around much longer. And he kind of has a little freak out and he leaves. But they decide that they're going to go and check out Loudermilk's crypt.
Speaker: to see if, I guess, to see if they can find any kind of clues or to see if he's really in there because they've, for some reason, in a great leap, they start suspecting that Loudermilk, um, was buried alive or something. I don't know. They, they start something fishy is going on with his death. So they go to the crypt.
Speaker: Um, and big, uh, Bigelow is like, all right, cool. I'm going to go home and change or something. And he's like, I will, I guess he got messed up in the fight with the, the zombie a cow.
Speaker: And he was like, I'm going to go home and change. And I'll, I'll meet you guys later at, uh, at Randy James's place. And so they go to the crypt and they have this moment where the main things I think that happen are he notices that there's no mention of a daughter on the crypt. And he says, are you right, daughter?
Speaker: And that's when James is like, no, I'm not really his daughter. But it was sort of like an adopted daughter. I was on I think he she says she was on drugs or something. And she came into this. hospital or something and that she met him in the hospital and he kind of took her took her in and and kind of almost kind of sort of adopted her as his as his adopted daughter and the other thing they find is they find this code written on the inside of a lampshade and was that supposed to be written in blood don't know if it was blood or lipstick.
Speaker: Oh, that would make more sense, I think. I think that would make more sense than blood. I wrote down my notes, I was like, is this blood? But it was still a pretty big swing for Loudermilk or whoever it was to write this weird code on the inside of a lampshade inside his crypt and hope somebody found it.
Speaker: I just thought, that's a big swing. but It is. But they take that as a clue. And so they go back to pick up Bigelow at... ah at Randy James's apartment.
Speaker: And this is where things really, i mean, take off to another level. So they come in and they find Bigelow dead and kind of drown in this fish tank.
Speaker: Yeah. Now, not one of our buddy cops is dead. Now two of them are dead. Both of them. I didn't expect it. Did that catch you by surprise?
Speaker: It did. Yeah. So the trailer for the movie says that Mortis has to solve his own murder. And so I think I was ready for that, but I wasn't ready for Bigelow to be dead.
Speaker: Right. Yeah. And so then after that, it seems a little disjointed. He has this weird moment where like, I guess he's reflecting on his friend dying and he goes in the bathroom And Randy is in the bathroom.
Speaker: I think she took a shower or something. And she looks very sad. And she, like, comes clean that she actually, it wasn't drugs. She was in a hospital because she was dying. And, in fact, she is dead.
Speaker: And she confesses that they, whoever they are, this powerful cabal of people who run Dante Pharmaceuticals and created the Resurrection Machine, convinced her to help them. with their plot, and ah if they did, they would bring her back, but they would give her a way to not deteriorate like Mortis is, but to stay alive indefinitely.
Speaker: Right. ah But then something confusing happens. She immediately begins to rot, and in a disgusting way, and basically just rots away in front of him within a few seconds.
Speaker: And I was like... that was like... It wasn't like a slow deterer deterioration. It was like... Like body parts just started falling off and hitting the floor.
Speaker: and it wasn't it wasn't anything that could have been slowed down. Really? Her old arm falls off and their head falls off. It was pretty gross. It was like end of Indiana Jones stuff.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. But that's another thing where I was confused because I was like, OK, so if she's helping them, they're going to keep her alive and definitely. But how? would they know that she's betrayed them and able to in time to like make her deteriorate that quickly? It just it kind of didn't make a lot of sense to me in that moment. But it was a great gross-out moment, I will say.
Speaker: oh very. So I was confused by that. And I'll tell you, this is another thing where when I went back and watched the deleted scenes, it kind of added a lot to this scene. So after Bigelow is dead, there's this awkward scene where Mortis and Randy James are like sitting on a couch, just talking about everything that's happened.
Speaker: And they lean in and they have this like kiss. They have a kiss, which is... Without that deleted scene, I never saw them as romantically linked, really. Right. So they have this weird kiss, and then he kind of says, I don't think this is going to work. And she's like, I don't either.
Speaker: And so then they go back to talking about things, and they fall asleep on the couch together. and And he has this dream where Bigelow appears in like total zombie form and wakes him up, and he's got like water coming out of his mouth where he was in the fish tank. And he's like, hey, Roger – And he's like, oh, you're alive. And he's like, I'm as alive. I'm as alive as you are.
Speaker: And he's like, come with me. i got to show you something. And he walks him down this hallway and they go into this room and it's Roger's death day party that they talked about earlier in the movie. And there's a cake and his mom's there and everybody's there.
Speaker: ah And all of a sudden out of the cake busts this um stripper. ah She's clothed, but you know she's scantily clad and she's dancing. yeah And all of a sudden her face just starts deteriorating and her eyeball falls out and the bugs crawl out of her face. And he wakes up And Randy is not there anymore. And he comes stumbles into the bathroom and that's when he finds her in there all sad.
Speaker: And she tells him, you know, she comes clean with him and then she deteriorates. So it still doesn't make a ton of ah sense, but it makes more sense, I guess, rather than it just being like, we found Bigelow dead.
Speaker: And now we go in the bathroom and now all of a sudden she also is dead and gone. Right. But, you know, it was just kind of crazy. But I was glad we got that moment because it was a a cool little ah little gross out moment. So now...
Speaker: He's looking at the telephone and he realizes this code from the crypt is um is is like when you look at a telephone. i don't know. The cell phones even still do this. I don't guess they do. But back in the day when you looked at a telephone, they also had letters attached to each number.
Speaker: And he uses the the telephone to like decipher this code. And the code says body doc. And so from that, he determines that Dr. McNabb, this weird dude that we've been suspicious of all the time, is the is the guy behind all this. And in his mind, McNabb, who we do know is driving like a fancy car and his fancy jewelry, has been burying these rich people alive and stealing their jewelry. Is that how you still in their riches? Is that how you interpreted it? That's how I interpreted it.
Speaker: And once again, I was confused because I was like, these bad guys, this scheme is pretty confounding. So allegedly McNabb is burying rich people alive, stealing their valuables, but also bringing some people back to life because he's got access to this resurrection machine and having them rob jewelry stores.
Speaker: And I guess in Mortis's mind, maybe those things aren't necessarily connected. It's just he's burying rich people alive, stealing their jewels, but he's still greedy. And he brings back zombies to have them rob jewelry stores for him, I guess.
Speaker: Maybe. I don't know. so So it was very confusing to me. And he comes up and he he confronts McNabb. And basically these two zombie goons come in and and knock him out.
Speaker: And so they take him out to – I can't remember if they knock him out or – I think they knock him out because I um i remember thinking, like so you can knock a zombie out now? Right.
Speaker: Knock him unconscious. So they take him out to this ambulance, and they they handcuff him to a bed, and that's when we find out they've also killed Rebecca Smithers, his girlfriend.
Speaker: And I was they are killing everybody. Yeah. that Everybody dies. Everybody dies. Spoiler, everyone dies. yeah i guess so. It's one of those movies where everybody dies in this.
Speaker: ah But that one also took me by surprise. I was like, man, they are just gut punch after gut punch here at the end of this movie. Poor Rebecca. She was a really nice person, and now she's laying there dead. So they leave him to basically decompose. He doesn't have long left anyway.
Speaker: Handcuffed to this... um this gurney in this ambulance and that's when he concocts this idea where he knocks it out of gear and they and the elevator bumps this car in front of him and then that car and the elevator just go, elevator, not elevator, ambulance just go careening down the hill and we get another one of my favorite tropes from 80s movies which is the ambulance crashes and explodes. boats yeah I love that. I love an exploding car and in this one it was an exploding ambulance.
Speaker: I really liked it a lot. Um, It wouldn't be the 80s without exploding cars. Absolutely, man. I just really like that. I'm glad I didn't realize that at the time, though, like in the 80s and 90s, because I would have been afraid to get in a car, probably. If I'd seen enough movies where cars blew up just for nothing. I always point out, like ah think I talked about it in the last episode, too, but the Death Wish 4 is one of my favorite, like cheesy, cheesy action movies. And there's a scene in that where this car rolls down a hill and just kind of barely bumps a telephone pole and just explodes on impact.
Speaker: i was like, man, can you imagine if your car was that flammable? But in this instance, it's an ambulance, so you're not even safe riding to the hospital in these 80s contraptions. But it was all, of course, a ruse because he is already dead. So when they come to investigate the scene of the crash, ah he's able to get out.
Speaker: He comes right up out of the body bag, which apparently they were able to put him in a body bag before he came to. He comes up out of the body bag and just rises up and he looks messed up now because he's all burned. And he's like burn he's like half face burned.
Speaker: Yeah. He has like a two face look to him. Sort like a face from Batman. ah But at this point, he's looking like ah he's looking rough, but he's also now he's looking like the rogue cop. And so he, he takes a he basically like this patrolman is like freeze buddy.
Speaker: he's like, he pulls out his badge and the guy's like, you're a cop. And he's like, yeah, I need your gun. And the guy just hands him his gun and he gets on the motor's like, Oh, he drives off. So he comes to, he comes back to Dante pharmaceuticals.
Speaker: And this is where we find they're having a meeting of all these rich people and McNabb is there, but it turns out that actually the mastermind behind this whole very confusing scheme is Loudermilk, Vincent Price, he's been resurrected and he looks great. He doesn't look like Mordos. He looks great.
Speaker: And so he's like, my scheme is that I have this resurrection device and we've perfected it to where i can I can bring you back to life and keep you alive indefinitely forever. And it'll cost you half your fortune, but you have eternity to make it back.
Speaker: And so he's trying to like basically get all these people to pay him for use of their device. It was very confusing to me. I didn't know how McNabb fit in, how Vincent Price fit in, but I'm here for it because it meant more screen time for Vincent.
Speaker: Right. And that's what I want. So then... Mortis comes in. he's got like He's got the gun. at some point, he gets a machine gun. He must get it off one of the the bad guy thugs because he comes in. He's killing all the bad guy guards.
Speaker: And then he runs into this guard who doesn't look like a zombie but must be because they have this moment where they just unload machine guns on each other. Oh, yeah. I loved that moment so much. They're just like blasting on each other, and it just seems like it's never going to stop.
Speaker: And he ends up putting that guy into the into the same suffocation chamber that he was in earlier. and I think that... Oh, but no, but then he throws a grenade in at him. He throws a bomb in with him. And that's what happens. He blows that guy up.
Speaker: Yeah. And he comes in um to the... to the room and he confronts everybody and they, they have a shootout and somehow some of these rich people get shot. I couldn't tell if our hero was shooting these random rich people or if it was, they got caught in the bad guys line of fire.
Speaker: Uh, but like you said earlier, everybody dies. ah Let's see. Dr. McNabb actually takes care of himself, ah which Mortis feels robbed by that.
Speaker: So he says, you want to find out what happens when you bring somebody back to life twice? And it turns out what happens is they blow up. And so then after they blow up Dr. McNabb by resurrecting him twice, they they kind of like turn to leave.
Speaker: And Vincent Price is like, I'll pay you. You know, I'll pay you and I'll bring you back to life. You can have everything. You can have immortality. And they just turn around and they they just machine gun. Oh, I'm sorry, in the course of all this, I forgot one of the most important things, which is that They bring back Bigelow. They've got Bigelow in there as their test subject to show people that it actually works.
Speaker: And they resurrect him and they and he is mindless. And they do explain a little bit there. They're like, he was he was dead so long that he's brain dead. So he's not like you, Mortis.
Speaker: He is ah completely at our control and he's brain dead. And they're like, kill this guy, will you? And so Bigelow starts coming out and he's like, kill this guy, will you? Kill this guy, will you? And he picks him up because Piscopo is like super strong.
Speaker: And um Mortis is like, it's me. It's me, Roger. And he's like, remember the death day party? We'll get ripped and invite all our friends. And that's enough to bring Bigelow back to his senses.
Speaker: Yeah. So then he turns around and Mortis is like, kill this guy, will you? And that's when they start going after McNabb. Then McNabb takes care of himself. They put him on the machine twice, blows him up.
Speaker: Vincent Price is like, please don't destroy the machine. But they do destroy the resurrection machine. Then they walk out into this bright light and they're both walking out of this bright light together, which I guess is supposed to symbolize them walking into the afterlife.
Speaker: Is that what you took from it as Yeah, that's what I took it as. And they say a line that I thought was really funny. They say, this could be the end of a beautiful friendship, which is a reference to the the famous final line from Casablanca, which I thought was really funny. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Speaker: And that's the end of the film. That's the end of Dead Heat. Okay. And every everyone died. and And somehow I still had a good ending. Yeah, I think so, too. It was just kind of a happy ending, even though everyone was dead. But, you know, the bad guys got theirs and the good guys walked off having a nice little witty talk.
Speaker: um So I feel like. I just I kind of feel like i I did a lot of talking in the plot description and I wanted to see i wanted to ask you a few things about your take. So did you have any of all those scenes we just talked about, which which ones were your favorites? Did you have any favorite scenes, favorite moments from the movie?
Speaker: that Definitely the the scene where with the the opening scene with the robbers was one of my favorites. I also enjoyed the scene with the big trouble in Little China type zombie in Dante Pharmaceuticals.
Speaker: Yeah, that was pretty sick. You know, and um Like this movie has so many great action sequences. Like I love all the action sequences. I feel like there's some holes in the plot.
Speaker: But other than that, this is a pretty good watch. Yeah. And I think this is an example of one of those kind of movies where like it didn't bother me really that the plot was um was kind of piecework in places because like you can tell that everybody behind the scenes of this movie was having a good time.
Speaker: And I think as a result, you have a good time as a viewer. Of course, you know, that like you give us good times, great action, you know, and if you essentially give us diabetes is what I like to call it, we'll kind of forget, we'll forget some of, some of these plot holes and we'll forgive them.
Speaker: But like, but as I said, you got to give us proper effects when it comes to this type of stuff, or it just becomes, we know it's a distraction, you know, like, it's like,
Speaker: Transformers movies. they All they rely on is CGI diabetes. And then we you there it's you realize that there's no no real plot.
Speaker: yeah nothing Yeah, I think I agree with that, man. i think that like i think that just the care taken behind the scenes in a movie like this, like you said, the effects were great, but you could tell like some artistry went into it.
Speaker: And I'll say that like the actors, even though they knew they were in a stupid movie, I mean like i you know i have i was watching the behind the scenes stuff and they were interviewed, but like they knew they were in a ridiculous movie. I won't say stupid. They knew they were in a ridiculous movie, but they played it.
Speaker: they played it you know so They took their role seriously. They took their job seriously. Like I said, there was that thing where Goldblatt and Terry Black ah said that Treat Williams would call them like in the middle of the night and be like, I had an idea for my character. like He was taking it very seriously.
Speaker: ah The effects guys took it seriously. We'll talk about in a minute maybe, but Ernest Troost, who did the score, he took his job very seriously. Very seriously. And I appreciate that. um So, yeah, I agree, man. I love those scenes you were talking about. and of course, I would add to that a the exploding ah ambulance just because I love when. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And also, i really loved that scene in the Chinatown butcher shop.
Speaker: There was just something so ridiculous about that, that whole Chinatown butcher shop. And I just I don't know. i really thought it was great. I loved all the zombie chicken heads and the the big bull. I just thought that scene was really was really funny and awesome. Oh, that that was that was great and fantastic. And just fun to look at, honestly.
Speaker: That felt like, um, what I said his name earlier, Steve... ah I should remember because I thought he did so well. ah But the effects guy, what did I say his name was? Steve Johnson.
Speaker: And it just seemed like they were like, Steve, go crazy. he Yeah. Oh, by the way, he he said it was funny in the interview I watched with him on the special features. He was talking about how they called him to do this movie. and He was really excited to get the chance.
Speaker: And he said they were like, so how much money would you need to do this movie? And he said, well, let me do some figuring. And he called him back later. and He was all nervous. He said, I don't know, 300,000. And they were like, great. That sounds good.
Speaker: Yeah. And he said surprising like he didn't want to really like hear him lay out what he needed the money for or see any sketches. They were just like, that sounds great. You've got four weeks or whatever to come in and, and, and bring us the the movie. So they, he did all that stuff. And I thought that scene was just him kind of being allowed to, uh, to just run wild.
Speaker: I, I also, of course, loved any moment that um that our dear friend Vincent Price was in the yeah was in the movie. it's always it's It's always a pleasure to see Vincent Price on the screen. Let me first and foremost say that.
Speaker: What a great actor. And he he made tons of contributions to cinema throughout his days. And, you know, seeing him in literally anything is is a pleasure.
Speaker: I agree, man. and ah And I like to see him still doing such a good job in his kind of later years there. also think this is a perfect role for him because he was one of those people who understood what I always say, which is that horror should be fun.
Speaker: And Vincent Price always seemed like he was having a really good time ah being a horror star. And I really liked that about him. Um, so what did we think about, cause obviously one thing that's big about, um, buddy cop movies, what do we think about the, the dynamics between Bigelow and Roger Mortis?
Speaker: Like, I think it's, think it's a pretty much, um, funny guy, straight man combo. He, um, I thought they worked fairly well together. I believed their friendship, you know, it wasn't out of range. I didn't think that it like, especially for these types of movies, there's,
Speaker: It's always the... It's not the odd couple, but it's kind of like... There's always the more straight-laced one and the one that has like some quirks to him. And that that always kind of works with these movies and...
Speaker: It's it's worked several times before and it worked here. Yeah, I thought so, too. One thing I really liked about this movie was, you know, in movies like 48 Hours and Lethal Weapon, there's like that that when they first meet or even like Rush Hour, when they first meet, they don't like each other, like they instantly don't like each other.
Speaker: And they are you have you have to spend part of the movie with them kind of like coming around to each other. This is one of those movies where it took it a different way. It's like you said, it was like the kind of classic comedy duo, ah straight man and and funny man dynamic. And they they liked each other from the beginning. I mean, they were close friends. and you know Well, they had obviously been partners, at least for a little while. So they knew the ins and outs of working with each other.
Speaker: And you could tell there was genuine affection there for each other. Like I said, when Mortis died, it was one of the only times in the movie when Bigelow actually seemed to show emotion. You know, he was like really upset about it, which I thought was pretty cool.
Speaker: ah <unk> I really liked both the actors, Treat Williams and and Joe Piscopo. As we said, I'm not super familiar with Treat Williams. I know he had been a i've been in a lot of stuff before this. The director seemed to be really pleased that they got him. I'm not super familiar with him. Are are you?
Speaker: I am not familiar with him at all, really. Yeah, I wasn't really either. But they seem to be glad that they could get him for a movie like this. so he must have done a lot of work before. And Piscopo, as we said, I don't know from a lot of things. I mostly just know from sidekicks.
Speaker: um I thought that Piscopo was obviously like really cheesy. Like he was he was the crude cop to the point where it's like, yeah we get it. You're the crude cop. But somehow they're like corny cheesiness of the humor. It still worked for me. Like I had fun with it.
Speaker: yeah It was cheesy, corny, and crude, but like in a light hard very lighthearted way. And I think that's it, really. like I think that these kind of movies are just like fun ah just a fun, low-budget romp. like You're willing to accept that like the dialogue might be a little cheesy, and places the acting might be a little lacking. course, in this one, it wasn't that lacking. it lacking And then you know the plot might not make sense, but you just kind of have a good time. And especially helps, I think, if it seems like the people who and who were involved had a good time.
Speaker: there's there's some like and There's some movies I can think of where, to me, it still feels very similar to this, but then you find out later on that the people involved ah didn't appreciate it. And i you know I always like it better when I find out that people just like knew what they were in for and accepted it and had fun with it.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. And um one thing I did like about this movie, it did not overstay its welcome. It came in under an hour and 30 minutes, making it a quick watch, which I do love in a situation like this.
Speaker: Yeah, I do, too. I just really, you know, I appreciate a movie that that, like you said, doesn't overstay its welcome. When I was a... yeah When I was a kid, I just feel like we watched a lot of action movies and a lot of action movies in the 80s and 90s came in at ah at a cool 90 minutes. like So to me, 90 minutes so great length for a movie.
Speaker: If it starts getting more than that, I need it to justify its existence. Right. So I was pretty pleased with that for this one. um Yeah. So let's see. I had written down here about favorite lines, but I think that's mostly because I wanted to go over that one I talked about where he's like, I can't live a full life in six hours. There were just a few moments where I was like, wow, this movie is digging in deep for what it is. right um Well, hey, man, so what did you think of this of the score for this movie, of the music?
Speaker: I think it fit it perfectly, honestly. Yeah, man, me too. You know, there's a lot of movies where... I might not even notice the score, but this one, I did notice it.
Speaker: And I think some people think maybe that's bad. Like the score should be understated and shouldn't jump out at you. But I like a movie where the score is, is almost like, I hate to say this because so cheesy, but almost like its own character or like its own part of the movie. Like it adds something, you know, I always think about maybe, maybe my, one of my favorite scores of all time is the one for Beverly Hills cop. And, you know, i just think,
Speaker: Imagine that movie without or Halloween for that matter, you know, imagine Halloween without the score, i you know? And so I thought the score was great in this. um What I liked was i love synth elements. I know some people now when we're so far past the time of, of synthesized scores, find them cheesy. I love them. I love synth music and I love the synthesizer elements. And so I like that here.
Speaker: This one um is one of those ones where it combined um synthesized elements with or ah orchestral elements. Uh, the Ernest Troost was the composer and there was an interview on the, the disc with him.
Speaker: And he mentioned that hit one of his inspirations for doing that, combining the synth and the orchestral was at the time, Jerry Goldsmith was doing a lot of that stuff. And he, he referenced Jerry Goldsmith specifically.
Speaker: um so i thought that was cool. Um, one thing that I did notice, and I wondered if you thought this, as I was watching the movie, I was like, this music sounds like it would go in like an old timey monster movie.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. they would just exceed like When you start combining the orchestral elements, yeah ah it kind of brings you back to those old-timey monster movies. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, they played they played the orchestra in such a way that it they played it for emotion, but they played it in a way that it felt like they would do in ah in an older movie. And maybe it's because um I just went to, you know, we went to see the some of the Universal Monster films.
Speaker: Yeah. at the Carolina theater earlier, I guess it was at the end of September. So I had those old monster films on my mind and, um and I just, that just kept jumping in my mind at how much I thought it was very appropriate that the score sounded so much like an old monster movie.
Speaker: Well, turns out that he was actually pretty, um he was actually pretty influenced by older films, not so much monster movies, but he just mentioned how at the time he'd been watching a lot of old 1940s black and white crime dramas.
Speaker: And he mentioned ah Franz Waxman and Max Steiner. And he thinks that those were possibly ah an unconscious, um an unconscious ah influence on the film as those old like film noirs and things he'd been watching. And he said it made it even more so because the working tape that he was working from was in black and white.
Speaker: So when he was when he was working off a tape for this movie, what he saw was in black and white. Oh, that's very interesting. Yeah. Oh, another thing I thought was funny, I made a note here. He really liked the fact that in that scene when the ambulance is going down the hill, ah the guy, Mortis, he like screams as he's going the hell he down the hill. He's just like, oh, yeah. And he said that he didn't do it on purpose, but he said that his like at the orchestra at that moment hits a high note and it harmonizes perfectly.
Speaker: And he said lots of people would comment on that. And I went back and watched that and it did. it harmonized perfectly the note that the orchestra plays and his scream. So I that was pretty funny. ah But apparently he had four weeks to write and record the score.
Speaker: And he um he had worked with ah Roger Corman ah for some of the stuff on New Horizons. I don't know about specifically for Corman, but his his studios and his films. And it was kind of how he ended up getting ah getting this gig was sort of through the loop from having worked with Corman on some low budget stuff. w Rest in peace to the great Roger Corman.
Speaker: Yeah, man, absolutely. Big, big Corman guy over here. I just think if you love b movies, then you owe a lot to Roger Corman. And of course, movies like the one we just watched, Dead Heat, owe a lot to the legacy of Roger Corman.
Speaker: Of course. Yeah. So I just thought that was pretty great. Well, man, I, that's kind of all the questions I had. Did you have any final thoughts about the film? Anything else we didn't talk about that you want to talk about, about this movie? I just want to say thank you for recommending this movie. And if you're looking for a fun holiday for the Halloween, for Halloween buddy cop movie, dead. He is the movie for you.
Speaker: I couldn't agree with you more. I really hope everybody has chance to watch this film. I think it's perfect for this time of year. As I mentioned, I ended up just buying it from a 4k from vinegar syndrome. ah where did Where did you end up watching it? Just because I'm i'm sure it's out there where people can see it.
Speaker: Oh, on Tubi. Okay. Oh, great. Tubi. What a wonderful app that everybody should check out. If you've never checked out Tubi, ah you really should. There's a lot of cool stuff on there. That's perfect. I'm so happy that it was on Tubi. I didn't even think about that.
Speaker: I love Tubi. I guess you're a Tubi guy. Well, like it's free and you can pretty much find anything you want on there. If you want, I mean, in like Wacko stuff, you can find what I like. Like they have so much Italian stuff on there. It's insane.
Speaker: Um, well, awesome. Gabe, man, I really appreciate you being on here. Like I said, I knew you were the perfect guy to watch this movie. Um, if, uh, do you have anything that you want to plug, promote for people? Um, well, if you want to see some more of me, um,
Speaker: Me and my friend made a movie about 10 years ago called Honey Spider. You can always catch that movie. um You probably rent it on Amazon and stuff like that. but um And also me and my friend Rob, we did a short called Game Over.
Speaker: And it is now on the festival circuit. I'm sure that will be coming somewhere soon. And um get ready because me and Rob, after he finishes with his full-length feature, are going to make my for first full-length feature called He Has Risen.
Speaker: Yeah, you've been talking about doing that for a while. That's cool, man. um Can I just say how much I love both of the movies that have already been released that you referenced? i um Man, I saw Honey Spider for the first time a long time ago, um and I just really thought it was great. It's perfect once again for this time of year. It's a great Halloween movie, ah you know independently made film.
Speaker: like you said, a buddy of ours um wrote it and and shot it and you were involved and I'd seen it before I even really knew you. um But it's cool to see you in that. And if memory serves, you're the you're stay puffed.
Speaker: i I am. i i have several cameos in the movie. I actually play different characters in each scene. i don't think I realized that, Gabe. That's cool.
Speaker: Well, like there's a scene where I'm like walking into a movie feed theater with a friend. There's like a scene where she like walks by a party. And I am outside like partying with friends. Okay.
Speaker: And then there's the scene where I am in a Halloween costume during the movie marathon at the movie theater. And I play that. And I'm dressed as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. That's what I was thinking of. i just really liked that scene because I love the old theater. So everybody should check out Honey Spider. But the other thing that you were just saying, and I'm glad you did mention it, is Game Over because um I loved it.
Speaker: We went to see the premiere of it, right? That was the premiere. i think it was the premiere. Yeah, at at this ah at this local film festival, and it won. it was a short film festival, but it won the the the prize that night.
Speaker: And I went in not knowing what to expect, and you know I wanted to see it because you're my buddy, and Rob is my buddy, and I wanted to see it. And man, I was just really impressed by Game Over. So when it comes out, I would strongly encourage people to watch it. It's a short film. It will not take you very long, and I just i really enjoyed myself ah watching that movie. That is Rob's baby. He totally...
Speaker: not knocked it out of the park with that one. Well, I, I'm hoping to have Rob on a future episode too. And so maybe it'll be somewhere watching by that, by that time. um Well, awesome. Gabe, I'm, I'm really glad you could come on, man. I wanted to plug the, the podcast socials real quick. Just tell everybody you can find us on Instagram at steak and shake pod, T A K E and shake pod.
Speaker: ah You can find me on Instagram at cliff Weston, and you can follow me on letterboxd. My ah tag there is, the underscore strongbow.
Speaker: Uh, I mostly mentioned my letterboxd a, in case you want to keep up with what I've been watching and B, uh, because I, uh, have a long, very inclusive, uh, buddy cop list that goes along with this podcast on there.
Speaker: Um, but so thanks everybody, Gabe. So awesome to have you on having me on, man. Absolutely, man. Thanks a lot, everyone. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween, everyone.
Speaker: And until next time y'all be cool. Right on.
