Sam 0:00 I live my life a quarter mile at a time. This is the nine days of fast and furious. Welcome to the nine days of Fast and Furious monkey off my backlogs first limited series. I'm your host, Sam Morris. With me is Tessa Swehla. And our special guest friend of the pod, Martha Petro chesky of four nations report and Martha and Colby, grow up. Listen to how I did that, like I know your last name. Martha 0:38 That was really good. I'm really impressed Sam 0:40 before we go any further because Tessa keeps insisting that it's the season for it. Let's talk a little bit about holiday spirit. Martha, what are you doing to get in the spirit? Martha 0:52 So so far, I haven't checked it in a couple days. But I've been up I'm at about like 15 to 17 Christmas movies since October 30. So I've been going pretty hard on that. Which is like basically almost one every other day at this point. So it's been a lot. I just felt that we needed a little bit of extra cheer. Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday. But just the Christmas movies are watch love, actually, for the first time. This year, we'll probably watch at least one more time. And I made these really cute cards. And as I'm realizing this, I have to send you guys. But I made these Christmas cards to send to my friends. So I've been Yeah, I've been doing like little things like that just to get in the spirit. And then I'm taking a cocktail holiday class this Saturday. Yeah, holiday cocktail class. So we're, we're doing like the thing I guess. Tessa 1:54 Well, so we had a whole conversation with Colby, on our first episode about Christmas movies. What have been your favorite Christmas movies that you've watched so far this year? Martha 2:03 Oh, yeah, he's doing his little project doesn't he? Well, for Colby for the pop culture, his podcasts that Colby and I are doing. We watched all of the three Santa Claus. My voices gave out there we watch. The last three Santa Clauses are the only three. I want to say those are like some of my favorites because it was just sort of as I was growing up, like these are the movies that I watched. But out of the new ones this year that I've seen, we'll stick with the new ones. I love the princess switch to switch again. And then I also loved midnight at the Magnolia which is more holiday than Christmas. And of course love actually is an all time Fave. Sam 2:39 Speaking of all time faves, top three Christmas movies of all time. Martha 2:45 of all time. Oh, boy. Okay, give me a sec. Um, for sure. The holiday for sure. Love Actually. So those are the top two. If I had Okay, hold on. I have a list saved in my Google Drive. So let me just talk as I search for this. But what's funny is I don't normally like watch a lot of the other movies like some of the stuff like I haven't seen home alone. I haven't seen Christmas story. I haven't seen those. Um, I have seen the wonderful life that's a pretty good one. I'm Sam 3:23 just gonna stop right there and say that when you were talking about the old Christmas movies, and home alone was the first one you went with Martha 3:33 Sam that came out the year I was born Sam 3:35 that I Martha 3:38 we did it Okay, when we look I'm 1990 Sam 3:43 Wait, wait, wait, wait. I don't think so is the year Tessa was born? Martha 3:47 Yeah, I I was not alive yet. Sam 3:52 All right, what's the third best Christmas movie of all time? Martha 3:55 So I need to rewatch It's a Wonderful Life. So that might be tired, but I'm gonna go with little women. 2019 for me, Tessa 4:02 Little Women watching Little Women 2019 on Christmas Day was a Christmas Day or Christmas Eve that we saw it. Sam 4:09 It was Christmas Day Tessa 4:11 Christmas Day. That's got to be one of my great last great movie going experiences. Martha 4:18 Oh, movies on holidays are always so fun. My mom and I used to go to movies on Thanksgiving. I remember one year we saw Twilight, which was just like a great Thanksgiving. Sam 4:28 Great to see Timothy shallow a flail to Christmas days in a row in the theater. It was alright final final Christmas movie question for me. Is diehard a Christmas movie or not? Martha 4:42 I haven't seen it can answer. Tessa 4:45 Both of you and Colby you guys need to have like a die hard watch party Martha 4:49 that's on my list for this month. I have two more holiday movies with like my little Movie Club. So we're gonna watch. I'm picking the holiday and then we're also gonna watch Die Hard. I think Sam 5:00 Tessa, what are you wearing? He said, sitting next to her. Tessa 5:05 This is not pre rehearsed or constructive at all. I am wearing one of my favorite Christmas sweaters. I'll actually pivot the camera so you all can see it even though that is cute. Yeah, it is a red and blue striped Christmas sweater with Snoopy in a Santa hat. It is one of my favorites. It is not the only Christmas sweater I will wear for this podcast. But Christmas sweaters are definitely a way that I show my holiday spirit. Sam 5:31 And I'll just say that, I'll remind listeners that Andy, who is not with us today, likes to often say that podcasting is in fact a visual medium. Tessa 5:42 Before we ditch all that holiday cheer. We still have to do our podcast within a podcast. Our podcast within a podcast is Sam's holiday cocktail. Sam, what are you drinking tonight? And how could we make it Sam 5:56 tonight's cocktail is the Apple Jacks as a rack. It's fun to say, Unknown Speaker 6:03 ooh, ah, Sam 6:05 not necessarily as fun to drink yet. I have ideas. It says rack is a wonderful, wonderful drink that uses rye Peychaud's bitters, and maybe maybe a touch of sugar. But the important thing is the absent rinse in the glass, the Apple Jacks as rack takes the rye out and puts Applejack brandy in its place. This is where we start to get a little tricky. So you're going to take two ounces of Apple jack and put it in a mixing glass with some ice, you're gonna throw in the peychauds bitters, just like you normally would give it two to three shakes. Or if you meet a couple more. If you're making an Apple Jacks as a rack, instead of a rinse of absent. You put in a little maple syrup. And I thought about that and I thought that's gonna make it a little too sweet. What if we keep the absent the renson the glass. So it did it. I'm not here I was wrong. But here's the deal. I would put a little more maple syrup in. I thought it sounded weird. So I only put a splash in but you should probably put something like a third of an ounce in so two ounces Applejack brandy, three, let's say three splashes of peychauds bitters, maybe a third of an ounce of maple syrup. you stir that around you straight it into the glass the glass can be soaked or sorry, rinsed and absent at your discretion. Absence is a wonderful thing. And that's how you make that. Martha 7:33 Isn't absinthe illegal? It is not Tessa 7:35 it is not illegal and it is no longer hallucinogenic. They don't they? It is not like the drink that you'll see in Moulin Rouge. It will mess you up as I can attest. However, it is not like the trick and Moulin Rouge that they are the green fairy. It's not it's not quite like that. This has been a podcast within a podcast, Sam's holiday cocktail Martha 7:57 code monkey 10 for 10% off your next order at Sam's cocktails.com Sam 8:02 All right, Tessa. This is normally the part of the podcast where you would summarize tokyo drift. Andy 8:09 Speaking of spirits and holiday spirits. Hello, I am here from beyond the world of fatherhood too. Sam 8:24 Are you with Phil Spector? Andy 8:26 No, no, no, I'm not with that specter. But I am with a specter. Sam 8:30 Wait, we'll wait. Blofeld? Unknown Speaker 8:32 No. Sam 8:34 Did we talk too much trash about James Bond yesterday enough specters Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Tessa 8:39 It's a specter of Christmas present. Andy 8:41 Yeah, exactly. Well, this is actually the specter of those Corona bottles that were not in this movie, if I remember correctly. That is correct. The I really quickly wanted to just come in here and tell you not only all about Tokyo Drift really quick, but also the fact that I haven't seen this movie since May of 2006. Or maybe june of 2006 when it was in theaters. Tessa 9:10 So what's your best what's your best? What's your best summary? What's your best memory of this? Andy 9:14 All right, listen up. First of all, you got the star of the show my man little bow as an amazing runaway performance that no one expected after all, all the weird stuff I believe in Nickelodeon at the time. Anyway little bow is up there. He's He's awesome. I forgot the main guy's name. I think he's played by Luke someone. Lucas black Lucas black. Yes, there we go. Lucas black is the Tessa 9:42 It doesn't matter. All the white guys in this film have generic white guy names. That's true. Unknown Speaker 9:47 Except for Andy 9:49 right. He's almost in this Mr. Miyagi relationship with a guy named Han. I remember Han shows him that hey, in Japan, if you go fast enough If you can just outrun the police and they give up, which is awesome. By the way, the Japanese word for police is case atsu. Just letting you know if you ever in Japan you hear someone yell, COSATU, run, run, and they won't try to catch you because apparently that's the thing. So this is all about the drift, right? When you're, I believe the line, the quote was, when you're out of control, you're in control or something along those lines. Stuff happens to get to get to do things with the Yakuza. And then I remember that Han shot first his car into another car and blew up so Lucas, blacks, mentors done and then they do a little racy race thing II thing. And at the end, Vin Diesel comes in for a random reason. Tessa 10:50 That's actually a surprisingly accurate summary for someone who hasn't seen it since it came out. Martha 10:55 We you ever watched it? Like, since you Andy 11:00 watched it since? 2006? I believe, June of 2006. Maybe June 10. Or June 16. I can't remember which day. Martha 11:06 Where are you here? Andy 11:08 I'm here to drop some Christmas spirit on you. And talk about my man little bow it with the most underrated movie in this entire series that I haven't watched since folk. It's been 14 years. Anyway, I've got like an I've got this little creature here that screams and like, sprays, everywhere. So I gotta go take care of that. You guys have a good one? Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Whoa, whoa, whoa. And little bow Miss, of course. But that'd be the case. Sam 11:41 You know, that was really just no way for Andy to talk about his dog. You know, Bart's a nice kid. Martha 11:49 Goodbye, Andy. Tessa 11:51 And just as quickly he left. Yeah, I mean, I think Andy did a pretty good job summarizing the film. I mean, Shawn, that is the name of the of the bland counter is this troubled kid, we get this race scene at the beginning of the film, where he races against a high school pier for a girl who seems not worth it. Anyway, he's like a troubled kid. They've had to move around a lot. Because he's gotten into all of these racing problems. He runs afoul of the law and gets shipped off to his deadbeat dad in Japan. What any didn't mention that I think is hilarious about this movie is that this movie not only moves us to Japan, it also moves us into high school. The other two movies are really about adults and about, you know, the adult drag racing scenes in LA and Miami. This is about a high school drag racing scene, which I really wasn't expecting them to go there. But that's where we are. So he's in high school in this new city, and he immediately finds the bad kids, which I think is hilarious. And gets involved like Andy said with the this. He is Han Yuk Yakuza as well as Han Yakuza. Sam 13:05 I don't think he is working with the Yakuza. So he's at least Yakuza, Jason Martha 13:10 Han, is kind of like, I guess he's kind of like the guy. He's like Matt Damon's character and Ocean's 11, where he has powerful friends and powerful parents. I don't know about Hans parents, but just bear with me. He has powerful friends that he works with, but he can still go off and do his own projects. Yeah, that's the sort of the best way to explain it. Yeah. Tessa 13:31 I mean, like, he has his own garage, which I thought was really yeah, that's actually one of the best set pieces of the movie. Like I just wanted to like spend more time in that garage to be honest with you, it seems like a really cool place to hang out. But yeah, so he gets involved with Han, who is working with this other kid, who's known as DK, the drift King, drift King, and this other kid is kind of a jerk. He works for his uncle, who is Yakuza. He's sort of playing at being a gangster in his own right. And so Sean races him at the beginning of the film loses badly, because he does not know how to drift, which I think is the important central concept of this film, The drifting Can one of you explain to me, what is drifting? Exactly? How would you explain that? Well, I Martha 14:18 can't, I can't do it. As much as I wish I could, but drifting is sort of explained in the movie. If you've seen it, you can rip the ebrake while you're, you know, you're traveling forward. But the ebrake will like kind of break one set of wheels. I don't know if it's the back of their front, but then you'll sort of spin like those wheels will lock up. So it allows you to sort of spin around a corner or spin. It's mostly around corners. But it's sort of like, okay, oops, there's not enough friction. We're gonna drift as we're trying to figure out what's happening to the car. Tessa 14:54 Yeah, I'd be like, I don't know anything about cars. As you know, if you've listened to the other two episodes of this podcast, but It's me, it seems like kind of like leaning into the spin a little bit. Like instead of resisting the spin, you're sort of just like going with it. Martha 15:07 It's okay. So I know you guys live in this out. But have you ever driven in snow like heavy snow? Tessa 15:14 Yes, I grew up in Kansas. Martha 15:17 Okay, perfect. So it's kind of like that when you are trying to break at a stop sign, let's say, and the snow, it's just a little bit icy you kind of like fish tail out. It's like that, but at a much higher speed. And the intention is to spin out and not like, stop, which is what you would do at a stop sign. Tessa 15:41 To me, I mean, I think that's I mean, besides what Andy said, That, to me is really the summary of the rest of the film is he's trying to learn how to do this thing, basically. I mean, he has to work for Han to work off his deck, see Rex, one of Hans cars. But mainly it's him like trying to learn how to drift trying to get involved with this scene, trying to steal dks girlfriend away from him. I think that's where we it would be a good time to kind of segue into discussing different points of this film. To me, I found this the female character in this to be a repetition of the female characters. And the other two films that we've seen so far. She's not really there to do anything. Even her plot points seem very similar to like Eva Mendez, his character in too fast, too furious, where it's like, she's with this guy. She doesn't really want to be with him. He's kind of a bad guy. And so like, this other person comes in, and she can drive but she doesn't race, you know, like, there's just sort of, it's sort of like a, the female characters in this so far up in stock characters. And I've heard that that changes as we go on through the series. And I don't want any spoilers, but I'm curious what you guys think about the female characters so far? Martha 16:51 So based on the first movie, I would say, you can kind of tell that Michelle Rodriguez is sort of the focal point she's not into I believe she's not in this movie. But yeah, I mean, I think this, these, this series, in these first three movies do have sort of a female character problem. It's very male dominated. I mean, that's sort of when you think of you think of like typical masculinity or like cars, girls, drugs, like that's, that's sort of the brand that they went for in these first three movies. I think they sort of figured it out after this and made it less, you know, emphasis on all of that. But yeah, it's kind of, like boring to me it I don't even know the woman's name. And I've seen this movie like maybe 10 times. I just always forget it. So I just feel like it's a pretty forgettable character. I think they could have done a better job. And I don't like I mean, then this one she did drive cars, they do have that like nice little drifting scene down the mountain. But I think they could have made are more like into a stronger character and not like, Oh, I'm dks girlfriend, like what do I know sort of thing? Tessa 18:00 Yeah, I feel like in every single film we've seen so far, maybe not too fast, too furious, but in too fast, too furious, we get Suki who is a female racecar driver, although we talked about how she sort of plays the girlfriend character for the rest of the film. But even in the first movie, we got this, like, really perfunctory like Oh, jordanna brewsters character can drive to like, you know, yeah, there's one scene where she drives so I'm I was just, that's something that I noticed in this film to him like, Alright, let's get to the like, the actual good stuff with female characters here. What did you think Sam? What, what what struck you about this film? Sam 18:34 As I mentioned, on the first episode, this was the first Fast and Furious movie that I saw the first time that I saw it, I believe I turned the channel just pretty much as soon as he arrived in Japan. So the first time that I saw it all the way through a little while later, I saw those beginning scenes with home improvement kid, and I just hated it. It makes a good case for not caring about backstory and just putting us in which we've complained about, you know, not knowing, you know, like Brian's, you know, backstory or anything, and we talked about how that's a weakness. It's actually a weakness that we get it here. But I remember getting back on the plane. So I have two very distinct memories of getting back on the plane and coming home from Japan in January of 96. The first one is they showed the Nicole Kidman movie to die for on the plane. And I just remember his kids from he was from Seattle. And I just remember like he was several rows up in the plane. And as soon as the movie was over, he just looked back and just mouthed. I can't repeat the words on this podcast, but just mouth it back. And I'm like, I just shrugged back and I'm like, this is our introduction back into American culture. What is this anyway? And the second one I have is just hearing about all the cool things that everybody else did. Because every Everybody who was in the exchange program from America, so who was on the flight back with us had been in bigger cities, like Tokyo, or Osaka. And I was in smack dab in the middle of the Northern Island in an extremely rural area. I had no exposure to anything remotely resembling anything you see in this movie. And it's it's not too soon to talk about it anymore. It was for a long time. It definitely was when I saw this movie, at first, but it just every time I see the scenes, I just, you know, not the Yakuza stuff, not the street racing stuff, obviously, but just seeing all the lights and the signs and the buisiness and the shops and the Pachinko parlors, the the restaurants, the vending machines, I definitely miss it. I didn't I missed it when I was living there, because I wasn't anywhere near it. But the times that I've been through Tokyo, for example, I just it's just so nice. It was nice seeing a movie there. It's like how I feel watching lost in translation. I just really like spending more time in that, you know, location. And so the movie is good, but but I really like seeing the stuff shot there. Tessa 21:21 I have a question for both of you. What so far, so we've watched three movies, and they've had been in three different locations. La Miami, Tokyo, which has been the best setting for this so far. Martha 21:33 I think that is maybe a two part question. For me at least. Because I think the third one tokyo drift is my favorite so far out of the ones that you guys have seen. Is it the best for street racing? I don't know. I don't know if it's like that believable? Maybe? I don't know. I've never been to Tokyo, but I think like authentically Miami, rings true of street racing for me. I do not know why I've never been to Miami. But that's just like, it sort of speaks to like, I don't know, because you get like Tyrese in that movie. And what am I even trying to say? I don't know. But I think like Miami is probably I would get more of the street racing vibe than I would la even though they do go back to LA in later movies or Japan. Yeah, I Tessa 22:24 mean, and do we think this has to do with Justin Lin taking over the directorship? Justin Lin has directed a lot of these movies. We've talked about this before he comes in and takes over this movie and then immediately moves us to Japan. And as we were watching this, Sam made a really excellent point about how this movie inverts. What happens in the first couple of movies is in terms of the cars Do you remember the point you made Sam 22:52 in the first Fast and Furious movie we get the the I will refer to them as toy cars as a couple of people have so far in the series we get the tuned up Honda's mitsubishis Suzuki cars, right? The toy cars and then Dom reveals the charger you know the the American Muscle right? And so in too fast too furious we, again start off with the toy cars. And then American Muscle you know, they win the they win the two cars off of the off of the the goons, right? This is an inversion of that, where Shawn comes to Tokyo and laughs at their little toy cars. He calls them toy cars. And so the the thing inverts, right? Because it's like we race in parking garages. Go ahead and try that. Try that with a charger. See what happens. Now, of course, the end of the day, we end up mixing culture. We end up being multicultural. We put the toy car inside the muscle car, if only we could all just work together the world would be a better place because this movie is about world peace. I think maybe that's actually what they're trying to do. And it's just weird. But But yeah, it does start off with that in version. It's I think it's really interesting. Martha 24:16 I mean, the whole point of this entire franchise is that American Muscle wins. Sam 24:21 I thought it was time Martha 24:23 that to Corona secondary. No, yeah, family comes later though, but I think it's, I mean, listen, I don't know anything about cars. I've driven the same car for probably six years now six or seven years. And it's a it's a Volkswagen. It's a 2008 Volkswagen I'm not winning three races in it gets me around it does the job. Do I wish I knew about cars? Absolutely. But Sam 24:52 is it is it a Jetta? Martha 24:55 It is a Jetta. Yeah. Its name is Shadow. Right. Yeah. Sam 24:59 That's the All right, quick show of hands, raise your hand if you can drive a manual transmission. Martha 25:05 Listen, I don't want to be called out like that. But here, let me tell you a story about that. Sam 25:10 Let if you're listening to this, you can probably guess which one of the three of us raised our hands. Go on, Martha. Martha 25:17 Cuz you're, oh, no, that's right. My dad bought, like my brother and I a car in high school, and it was manual transmission. So I did learn how to drive it. I just was not good at it. So like, technically, I probably could drive it if I was forced to. I was I the hills, freaked me out. I couldn't do the hills, I would just roll back and I'm like, Oh, my Sam 25:40 God. Oh, my God clutch. Yeah, Martha 25:42 that's my story. Sam 25:44 Fun fact, not only was the car that I learned to drive on a manual transmission, it also it did not have any nos. But it had turbo. So I learned Yeah, it's it's real fun. By the way, I will say this, I kind of miss driving a manual transmission, especially that particular car, because I remember rolling up at a red light. And this is the thing that actually happened multiple times in my, you're all going to look at me weird because you know me now. But I used to roll up to red lights, and basically the car version of the Millennium Falcon. And it doesn't matter who was next to me. And when that light turned green, they were gone. And I loved it. I loved it so much. Tessa 26:27 I will say this franchise. So what I've seen of it so far has made me not more interested in cars. Like I'm not gonna like go and become like someone who's like, really into cars now, but it kind of made me feel like, okay, like, this subject is way more interesting than I probably would have thought before. Like it maybe. I don't know, like watching this as not as boring, I guess, as I was afraid it was going to be. Sam 26:51 So everybody didn't spend time growing up with their dad in a garage, like pushing the clutch while he was working on the car. Nobody else? No. Okay, good. Well, that's the thing. Like I see these movies. And every time I see them working on cars, like I don't know how to do any of this. But you know, the whole thing about like family and working on cars. It's like one of the two things my dad and I did growing up. It's the one I did not enjoy. And it's one of the two things we did. Alright, Martha 27:21 so go ahead. Automatic transmission was invented in 1921. So it makes sense that you guys would do a manual transmission, Unknown Speaker 27:28 right? Martha 27:29 I'm never gonna stop making Old Joe there's no Sam 27:31 you shouldn't. And here's why. Because I deserve it. Quick question. Better movie too fast. Or Tokyo Drift? This one? Tessa 27:42 Yeah, definitely Tokyo Drift because I think that the characters have a lot more chemistry. We talked about the lack of chemistry in the last one between the characters, even though none of the original characters besides the brief appearance of Dom at the end, the the chemistry between Han and and Shawn, I'm sorry, I'm just never gonna remember the white dudes names in this. Shawn and Han. And between like even you know DK and like the interactions between the characters, little bow his character whose name I also can't remember, like a Twinkie? Thank you. He is Sam 28:14 the best movie character ever named after a hostess that treat and it is Bow Wow. Not little bow. Wow. Tessa 28:24 Like I believe that all of these characters have their motivations for being here for being part of it. Like I you know, this didn't try to be a Bond movie, which was kind of what too fast too furious was trying to be like, it was just a little movie about racing in Tokyo. And I it made sense to me in that in that context. And I also think the action sequences were better, even though there were no car pranks. Sam 28:49 Alright, yes or no Tokyo Drift better than the Fast and the Furious. The first movie? Yes. Unknown Speaker 28:57 Yeah, I think so. Sam 28:59 All right, it is now time for fast facts. Martha 29:03 born ready. Sam 29:04 Since this is the third movie in the franchise. I have three fast facts for you. Did you know In Japan, these movies were not known by the names fast or furious. They were known as wild speed. I did not know that tokyo drift is known as wild speed three. That's funny. Out of the eight movies in this franchise, not including Hobson shop. Half of them are rotten. on Rotten Tomatoes. Half of them Martha, do you know what the most rotten movie of the mall is? Martha 29:44 How would maybe guess this one? Sam 29:47 Nope, the fourth one then. That is correct. Fast and Furious is the most rotten of them all at 28% dang too fast too furious is 36% rotten. The Fast and the Furious tokyo drift is also 36% rotten. Which means objectively because we know Rotten Tomatoes is the measure of objectivity on this planet, too fast, too furious, and the Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift are equally bad movies. Which is funny because it's clearly not true. Martha 30:20 Well, here's the thing. I've been waiting to say this, and I think it's a good time to say it. A lot of people think these movies are very lowbrow, they think is just another action film. I think those people are wrong. I think there are a lot of depth to these movies. And at first glance, it can be like, Oh, yeah, cars, men, whatever. Um, that's not really the case. I think these movies are very well thought out. Maybe debating, you know, we could have gone without eight. I'll admit that. But I am excited for nine. I there's a lot of elements to these movies, that action movies just don't have. Like, they that's why it's been so successful for so long. Like these movies make billions of dollars. I don't know if that's true. Like over the course of the franchise. I'm sure they've made, you know, a couple billion dollars. And that's not something to ignore. But when I tell people like oh, yeah, Fast and Furious movies are great. Like, these are actually some of my favorite movies. I think they're fantastic. People give me a weird look. And I'm like, No, have you seen them? They're like, No, I'm like, Well, why are you saying that? Sam 31:26 So it's interesting what you said, because I think that let's say Rotten Tomatoes did like a fresh start program like a like a, you know, early release. Let's see how you behave this time. I think a lot of these early movies, especially tokyo drift, or maybe just Tokyo Drift would be seen much better. Starting with Fast Five, every movie is fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which I think speaks to your point, that once people started to understand what this series is, they saw it a lot differently, which, you know, it became something different. That's true, but it was probably not as bad as some of these movies or early movies are given, not credit for, Martha 32:11 or just stop having white men on Rotten Tomatoes. Sam 32:14 Oh, Tessa, you hadn't seen any of these movies before the start of the podcast, I know that you have feelings about this, as the first timer. Tell us about it. Tessa 32:26 I mean, I'll admit that I probably was a person who believed the stereotypes that Martha was talking about in terms of this is just hyper masculine, which it is, you know, at least the movies we've seen so far. We we can talk about the hyper masculine gaze in these movies. But you know, I just kind of thought like, Oh, these are just like, I don't know why. But I always kind of associated them with The Expendables like this, like very, like male heavy, like, Oh, this is just a bunch of dumb, like action movies that I don't like, don't really care about. And, as I've said, on Twitter and elsewhere, my only real experience with these movies, I've managed to remain spoiler free somehow over the last 20 years. But maybe it's just because I wasn't paying attention. But you know, like, my only real exposure to these movies is that every couple of years, another trailer would come out and like somebody would be doing something in a car that was progressively more and more fantastic. And I would just be like, this is just about like the weird things they can do in cars. And that's what these movies are about. But I I've actually and I know you've said that it gets that way, at some point or it becomes something else at some point. But I have to say like with the exception of too fast, too furious, which is objectively kind of a bad movie. Like I've really liked these three so far. Like I really enjoyed the first one more than I thought I did. I've enjoyed this one, two. And And honestly, I've enjoyed what Justin Lin has done with the third one more than I have the other two just because I think Justin Lin is a really good filmmaker. So I'm excited to see what he does with the other one. Martha 34:07 And just just to add on to that I'm very curious to see what you will think of the sixth movie and what they can do in cars. Sam knows what I'm talking about. Sam 34:18 So our last fast fact Vin Diesel Power player power Hollywood player. As you know, he did not appear in too fast too furious, even though universal prepared an entire script for him, just in case he showed up in the third movie to save the franchise. Tokyo Drift tested poorly. So they came to him and begged them Can we put it in a scene at the end of the movie to get people jazzed? He said you know what you can and I won't even take payment for it. But I get the rights to ridic and they gave it to them. Martha 34:55 That's pretty cool. Tessa 34:56 Which if you haven't seen my see my familiarity with it. Diesel is not from these movies. It's from the pitch black Riddick movies. And if you haven't seen those, I highly suggest that you do either actually I think pretty good as well. Maybe not the third one but the the first two I think are really interesting to talk about. I will say also, this scene at the end answered a question that Colby had in the first episode. Colby asked us in the first episode if in diesel's character is supposed to be white. And we had a little conversation about that because we weren't sure. When he shows up in this in this in the third film in Tokyo Drift, the music that's playing like the the entire film, the music that's been playing has been sort of this new metal, it's been a kid rock. It's been these Japanese, you know, Techno beats, which have been really interesting. But when Vin Diesel shows up at the end, it's a Latina x beat that's playing. And so I think that's supposed to answer our question that he isn't actually white that he's supposed to be playing a Latina x character. That's just something I found interesting. Martha 35:57 It's very funny to me, because I wouldn't call it like, Vin Diesel is obviously the brains behind this franchise or like maybe not the brains but like the backbone like he is fast and furious. I wouldn't call him my favorite character though. So I think we're gonna need to revisit this. I just need to get on all these podcasts actually. And then we can discuss. Alright, Sam 36:19 we've had the past backs, let's have some serious stats. And by the way, the key word for all of these stats is under performing. The budget for this film was $85 million. So we are moving up and up in terms of budget, but the opening weekend domestic just under 24 million underwhelming. Total box office is 158. So that is less than double its original budget to fast tripled the budget with box office take so there you go. Now the top five weekend for the opening weekend for Tokyo Drift a movie about cars. won the box office that week picks ours cars. It was not tokyo drift. Cars help cars took the top box office spot that weekend. Two, three and four that weekend were new releases. Number two, Nacho Lee Bray the Lucha Libre a classic film starring jack black beat out fast and furious Tokyo Drift which came in at number three. What came in at number four you ask the lake house? That's the one with Keanu, isn't it? Martha 37:41 Oh, yeah. Wait bell Tessa 37:43 so and Sandra Bullock, Sam 37:45 so much like so much like too fast, too furious. This Fast and Furious movie found itself in the top five with the Keanu Reeves movie. That's really cool. Number five, the breakup, and I know what you're thinking. I thought it wasn't Keanu Reeves movies that shared opening weekends with fast and furious. I thought it was x men movies. That's what Tessa told me in the last app. Well, number six that week was x three the last day and Tessa 38:12 the third fast and furious and the third x men movie, Sam 38:15 no Corona moments in this movie. So we are still at a grand total of two. Martha 38:18 Not enough IMO. Sam 38:20 I just want to say By the way, it's it's really ironic. I mean, I'm sure Corona has had a real tough year that Corona has had a real tough year the other ones doing just fine. Family count though family count. After no mentions of family in too fast too furious. We actually do we did have to in this movie. The first one comes 40 minutes in when Sean Sean asked us if these people are a bunch of is a family full of drift nuts. So it was ironic it was an ironic sarcastic use of family. But the fourth use of family Dom to Reto himself, talking about family and that's really where we live in this series. Unknown Speaker 39:06 He calls hon family and that's how he meets Shawn. He says Han was like family. Sam 39:10 That's right on was like family. All right, guys, it's time to scatter. Join us tomorrow for the next installment of the nine days of fast and furious. You won't want to miss Bryan and Dom's reunion in the least creative sequel title ever Fast and Furious. Over the next six days we have more guests and lots more holiday spirit lined up. You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout because Jason Statham and the rock are taken over for Santa this Christmas Eve. Watch along with us. tweet at us. Email us. Let us know all your Fast and Furious thoughts. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at monkey backlog Email us at monkey up my backlog@gmail.com Martha where can people find you online? Martha 39:56 You can find me on Twitter at Hons number one fan no Just kidding. You can find me at Marth underscore Vader. And you can find me on the four nations report podcast as well as Martha and Colby grow up. Sam 40:09 All right, you can find Tessa on Twitter and letterboxed suela Tessa s WEH la. You can find Andy on Twitter and letterbox that Hebrews Pale Ale and you can find me on Twitter at Sam underscore Morris nine and on letterboxed at Archie Leach nine. Also, check out our regular weekly episodes of Monkey on my backlog, as well as our newest series monkey nights. Our special holiday theme song is Scott Holmes's version of jingle bells and can be found on Scott Holmes music.com. Find the podcast on Spotify, Amazon podcasts, iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. It's all about family. See you next time. Transcribed by https://otter.ai