Sam 0:18 Welcome to monkey off my backlog the podcast where we exercise our pop culture demons by tackling our media to do list one week at a time. I'm your host, Sam Morris and with me are my co host, Tessa Swehla Hello, and Andy Bowman. Hello. Today we're doing something a little different. We're talking about six action movies from the 90s Point Break. Die Hard with a Vengeance, the rock, Mission Impossible Con Air and base off. Why are we doing this for the releases of the last Jedi and the rise of Skywalker Tessa and I hosted movie marathons to prepare. One spring we also hosted a one day Lord of the Rings extended edition marathon. This year, we decided to make a yearly event in December not necessarily tied to any specific franchise. So I use that opportunity to convince Tessa to make this year's marathon all 90s action movies. And she liked it. Tessa 1:16 I mean, I'd already watched nine Fast and Furious movies, it seemed like this was just a continuation of that, guys, we need help. It's 2020 we're in a pandemic. We're at Christmas alone. It's just all the movies. Sam 1:30 Andy's concession to this whole mania that we've had is he's come up with a game, Andy, Andy 1:38 I have come up with a game. And this game is I believe it's a work of pure genius. And it's called new metal album title. Or 90s. Straight to video action movie Sam 1:51 right now for your theme song. Imagine bow at the bar. Unknown Speaker 1:55 Sure. Andy 1:58 Anyway, the rules of this game are simple. I am going to give you a few words. Those words are either the title of a new metal album, or a 90s. Straight to video, release film, whatever you want to call it a 90 straight to video something. All right, both of you will take a guess and I will rack up the points at the end and declare a winner. Oh, there's Tessa 2:27 a winner to this game. All right. Andy 2:30 Of course there's a winner. Tessa 2:31 You don't know this, Andy, but we are very competitive in this household in the suela Morris household. Sam 2:38 We're even competitive about whose last name goes first. Unknown Speaker 2:42 It's mine by the way. Sam 2:45 We're not alphabetical in this household. Andy 2:48 Well, to be fair, Swehla Morris sounds better than more Swehla Unknown Speaker 2:52 Yeah, yeah, I think it does. Andy 2:54 Your first quip is every six seconds. Is this a new metal album title or a 90s? Straight to video release. Once again. It is every six seconds. Tessa 3:09 Oh man, I'm scared I'm not gonna lie. I was a very small child in the 90s and so either new metal or straight to video action movies are not are definitely not something that's in my my repertoire of 90s pop culture, I should say. I'm gonna go with album title. I think every six seconds sounds like an album title. New metal. Andy 3:34 You are both correct. That is the album from the band saliva. Your next round is zapped again. Tessa 3:43 This is a straight to video action movie from the 90s This seems this just seems like that kind of corny, like face off kind of title, new metal. Andy 3:54 And the winner of this round is Tessa. Unknown Speaker 3:58 Yes, Andy 3:58 it is a high school teen comedy where a science club discovers that they have that they can make telekinetic powers. Apparently this movie features no one I recognize but also some problematic elements so please don't go looking up zapped again. Tessa 4:19 Let's playing this game. The titles of this game are not necessarily an endorsement either of the new metal groups or of the straight to 90s action movies. Would you say? That's correct, Andy. Andy 4:28 Correct. Next round, mind twister. Tessa 4:33 Oh, that's definitely an album title. Sam 4:35 New metal. Andy 4:36 You are both wrong. It is a film it is a direct to video film, which by the way, is an erotic thriller in the genre of what is it like Fatal Attraction this movie was released in 1994. And again, stars nobody that I recognize. Tessa 4:57 I feel like straight to video Movies usually have all of the people either before they become famous or the people who just never become famous. Sam 5:07 The only exception and if there's not one of these on your list, you have done it incorrectly. Andy is john Claude Van Damme. Andy 5:15 I specifically avoided john Claude Van Damme. And the reason for that is because I know that you know, a lot of john Claude Van Damme straight to straight to video releases, Sam. I'm not going to stack the deck against Tesla like that. Sam 5:29 Remember, we're all primed for some john Claude Van Damme trivia later in the app. Andy 5:34 Alright, so the score is three to two. Tessa is currently winning. Your next round is the burning red Tessa 5:44 album title. Sam 5:46 New metal Andy 5:47 you are both correct. This is an album from Machine Head. Sam 5:51 I'm not sure that today is the day to do it. But at some point we need to do the podcast within a podcast bands named after good grunge songs. We'll do we'll do Godsmack and we'll do Machine Head and see their your next Andy 6:07 one. This one should theoretically be very easy. 10,000 fists Tessa 6:13 straight to video? Sam 6:14 I don't know metal. Andy 6:16 Correct. 10,000 fists is the album from the band disturbed? No, it Sam 6:21 actually knew Andy 6:22 that one famous for Let the bodies hit the floor. Yeah, we Sam 6:26 know Andy. Unknown Speaker 6:28 We're tied hide. Sam 6:29 So nobody. Andy 6:31 Oh, I'm winning. Tessa 6:32 We're we're all losers here except for Andy. Andy 6:37 Okay, for left, good luck. felons and revolutionaries. Unknown Speaker 6:42 album title, Sam 6:43 new metal. Andy 6:45 That is felons and revolutionaries from the band dope. Next up pros and cons. Unknown Speaker 6:54 Action Movie. Sam 6:55 Action Movie. Andy 6:57 You are both correct. Sam 6:58 It's a group of professional bounty hunters and the cons they catch. Tessa 7:04 See I was thinking more like it was a buddy comedy like there was a pro and a con. No. Andy 7:09 It is a movie starring Larry Miller about an accountant who gets arrested. Unknown Speaker 7:14 All right. Okay, that's that's one way to go. Andy 7:18 Next up, we have fatal charm. Tessa 7:21 Okay, so this could go action movie because I could see somebody trying to rip off fatal attraction. And like, have a name that was sort of similar that does seem like a straight to video thing to do. But I think I'm going to go with album title. Sam 7:37 Good job si t talking it through new metal. Andy 7:41 You are both incorrect. It is an action movie. It is a direct to DVD thriller film. Starring the wonderful. No one I recognize. So yeah, the story is an innocent and naive teenage girl has her eye on a guy called Adam who is convicted of murder. She can't believe that he is a serial killer and she tries to prove to others that he is not. We got we got Unknown Speaker 8:09 two left. We're neck and neck. Andy 8:11 Your your Sam 8:13 hard target to hard target. Andy 8:16 Satan's princess. Tessa 8:19 Oh god. album title. Sam 8:23 New metal. Andy 8:24 You're both wrong. In 1990 direct to video film starring Robert Forster. Tessa 8:33 Satan's princess would be a great album title name, though. Like with some like, really goth. 90s like Sam 8:40 yet? See, that's the problem. It's Manson not new metal. That was the problem Unknown Speaker 8:44 there. I see. Andy 8:46 If it still tied up here. I do have a tiebreaker round. Are you ready for the next one? The next one is it all comes down to this fallen? Tessa 8:58 album title? Sam 8:59 new metal break out of the tie break. Andy 9:03 We are going to the tiebreaker that is indeed an album. It is indeed an album by Evanescence. Unknown Speaker 9:13 I knew it. I knew that's what it was, which is why I went with album. I listened to Evanescence. I know who that is. Andy 9:20 I picked this one specifically because I thought it was going to end up being both but apparently, there is not a 90s direct to video movie titled fallen I could not find one. Sam 9:30 You know if we do enough games. What we should do is get like Def Leppard to do a cameo where they do instead of bringing on the heartache, bring it on the tie break. Def Leppard on cameo. Andy 9:43 Maybe, maybe Tessa 9:48 that's your research for next time, Andy, Andy 9:50 I guess. Thank you for giving me research to do to define the band Def Leppard and Tessa 10:00 Not not members of the band the entire band has to be on cameo individually Andy 10:06 each individually a cameo fee Sam 10:09 well they might have a group rate you don't know you haven't looked yet. Andy 10:13 Are you guys right now now for this one because it is the tiebreaker. The first person to call in to demon whatever Sam 10:22 it is to how about we just shouted out well that worked for you the first but Andy 10:27 here's the thing I have to have finished saying the entire title The Land Before Time for Colin journey through the mists video. I gotta get I gotta get that one to Sam. So thank you for thank you for playing it straight to video. Unknown Speaker 10:56 quick wit I guess. Sam 11:00 All right, so kicking off with the movie that Andy is wrong about we had 1991 Point Break, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey and Lori petty. Former Ohio State quarterback turned FBI agent Johnny Utah. Attempts to take down notorious bank robbers, the ex presidents Tessa got up early for this six movie marathon. And we came in real hot. What did you think about this movie? Tessa 11:32 Well, I mean, I hate to spoil the rest of the episode, but this was my favorite movie that we watched that day. Was it two days ago? I don't know what his time anymore. But yeah, I mean, we just watched the Fast and Furious franchise and obviously the first film, The Fast and the Furious is a rip off of this. And I think that this is much better than that film was it's hard not to compare those two. But I like the idea of this movie. I thought it was going to be a straight up cop movie. And I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it's more of like a homoerotic subversive action movie about surfing. So I really enjoyed that. I really I love anything that Keanu Reeves is in it doesn't matter how bad it is. But I I enjoyed the chemistry between Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. And sort of this idea that this narrative that like a criminal who is trying to do something that subversive to the system can sort of pull other people to them. I really enjoyed that too. I think that the most unrealistic part of this entire movie, besides Keanu Reeves jumping out of a plane with a gun without a shoot is the romance between Lori petty and Keanu Reeves. It just didn't work. Because Patrick Swayze Keanu Reeves had better chemistry. Sam 12:52 Okay, Andy, why is this not an action movie? Why are you wrong? Why are you hurting us? Andy 12:58 I'm not even like going to try defending myself in some stupid diehard is a Christmas movie. Sham of an argument. I'm just gonna say it's not an actual movie. It's a romance. Sam 13:12 So So you're saying you can only be one. Tessa 13:15 Are you saying this? Because kathryn bigelow is a woman? Andy 13:18 No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not. But sure we can go with that. I think that women can't direct action movies. And Sam 13:27 I'm glad you brought that up, Andy, because the question I'm dying to ask, as you know, or maybe you didn't, but as you know, James Cameron and Catherine Blake, James Cameron, and Kathryn Bigelow. Both Oscar winners used to be married. And so the question is, which one is the better action movie? Point Break? or early 90s film Terminator two, Judgment Day, Tessa? Tessa 14:01 Boy break. I like teach you a lot. So that's nothing against T two. I think that kathryn bigelow is just a better filmmaker. She knows how to ramp up tension. She knows how to make a great shot here. And I think James Cameron relies too much on his own laurels. To Andy 14:18 to it's not even a contest. Even if I were to give you the the idea that Point Break is an action movie, which it isn't. T two still better. It's got a much better story. It's got cooler action. And I'm just gonna say it actual action stars. Tessa 14:39 So you have to be an action star to be in an action movie. Andy 14:43 You can you can claim that that's the claim I was making. Unknown Speaker 14:46 Keanu Reeves is an action star. Now he is. He was then to Andy 14:53 name 23 other piano action movies that came out in 1990 Unknown Speaker 14:59 what Andy 15:00 Hey, you heard me who was in 23 Tessa 15:02 action movies in 1991. In Terminator two, Sam 15:06 I know this What? Oh, and in Terminator two Tessa 15:08 in Terminator two. Okay, you're claiming is more of an action movie. Sam 15:12 I'm pretty sure john Claude Van Damme was in 23 action movies in 1991. Tessa 15:17 Okay, we get it. JOHN Claude Van Damme made action movies in the 90s we get it. Sam 15:22 I got one more later. Andy 15:24 And just to go ahead and and get this out of the way. Kathryn Bigelow did make one of the greatest action movies of all time in her 1987 movie near dark. But that's a very different movie, and it's much better than Point Break Point Break though. an action movie. Sam 15:44 Wait is near dark the horror one. The Vampire when we watched that we watched that one, didn't we? Andy 15:49 Yeah. The Vampire Western. Unknown Speaker 15:50 Yeah. Yeah, we watched that in a horror film class. Yeah, that's right. We Sam 15:54 have seen that movie. Tessa 15:55 That is a really good movie. I do agree that near dark is better than Point Break. But I just I there's something about this movie and the way that it plays with these characters. And there are whole sequences where they're having gunfights in a in a house although there are a lot of also a lot of boobs in that scene. There's you know where they jump out of the plane. He jumps out of the plane with a pair without a parachute in a gun. How is that? Bugs Bunny just Andy 16:21 the same thing? Unknown Speaker 16:23 Is Bugs Bunny in action star though? Andy 16:25 No, he's not. Sam 16:27 I will say that one thing that T two and Point Break have in common is prominent viaduct scenes. So it's definitely some la bingo going on there. Also, Patrick Swayze died too young national treasure. She's like the when Roadhouse. The second movie that we watched, is 1995 Die Hard with a Vengeance, or if you're not cool diehard three, directed by john McTiernan starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Irons. JOHN McClane has another terrible horrible, no good, very bad day, this time in the streets of New York and joined by a reluctant civilian partner, Tessa, Tessa 17:16 it was fine. It was enjoyable. I did enjoy sort of the buddy comedy between Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. And you could tell that this movie was trying to do stuff about race. It talks about race a lot, but it holds a better than a lot of movies in the 90s who tried to talk about race do but there are still some really cringe worthy moments especially because diehard is such a propaganda film in a lot of ways. So it's really difficult to kind of see some of these scenes like where the cops are reviewing security footage that clearly show a cop pulling a gun on Samuel L. Jackson for speaking rudely to a white man. And like eating popcorn like that's, you know, it's it's just not it's supposed to be funny and it's not in that way, but it's okay. It's okay. I enjoyed the Jeremy Irons subplot about him being Han's his brother, but not really there for revenge. That was kind of fun. I always enjoy a good villain. That's like, Man, I'm a bad guy, but I'm not evil. I always enjoyed that. We get a couple of those in this rewatch. It was fine. It was better than to die hard on a plane, but it's just never gonna have the charm that one does, I think. Sam 18:28 Have you seen this one, Andy? Andy 18:29 No, I haven't. But speaking of straight to video, movies, diehard spawned one straight to video release in I believe it was 2014 Die Hard five. Because no one saw it in theaters. Oh, Tessa 18:46 I do have a question for you. Andy asked this on Twitter is Jason Statham a fancier Bruce Willis. Sam 18:54 Yes. Tessa 18:56 I mean, Bruce Willis is really rocking the dadbod in this. I mean, maybe it's just cuz I watched Hobbes and Shaw recently, but I was definitely seeing a lot of parallels between the type of action star that they both are. And Andy 19:08 also remember that Jason Statham got his star, his his starting whenever in lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which is a fantastic film and is funny, and Bruce Willis used to be in that one sitcom that I don't remember the name of moonlight or something. Sam 19:25 It was a drama it. Andy 19:27 Okay, I'm Sam 19:28 actually it wasn't a drama or comedy. It was a Mystery Crime solving show, but it's an early precursor of a dramedy. Anyway, I was concerned with how diehard with a vengeance was gonna hold up. I hadn't seen it originally since the 90s. And it's good. It's better than I thought it was going to be. It's certainly much better than the train wrecks of four and five. There is a Donald Trump burn in the movie, which is fun, and there's probably one of the first pop culture Hillary Clinton drags too. So I don't know a lot of jokes made it everybody's expense. Next up, reaching the halfway point before we do, we took a look at 1996 is the rock directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. This is the brokest bro movie that ever borrowed, starring Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris, when a terrorist takes control of Alcatraz and threatens to launch a bioterror attack, Who you gonna call? Not Dwayne Johnson, that's for sure. Gonna go to you again, Tessa. Tessa 20:42 Yeah, this was my least favorite movie. I think out of all the ones that we watched. I just think it takes itself too seriously for most of the movie, and it has way too much going on. Like there's the terrorist plot, but then there's also like, there's terrorist backstory, which by the way, these movies definitely taught me that if you're white, you get a backstory if you're a terrorist, but there was the whole terrorist thing there was the the those things there was Nicolas Cage's whole thing about him and his girlfriend and her being pregnant, but he's also a chemist. And then there's Sean Connery. His whole thing about being a spy that's been in prison for all this time. There's just too many characters. They tried to follow too many threads. And it just doesn't to me just didn't work. There was no real motivation beyond. This is a bunch of white guys doing stuff to each other. I do want to hear Andy Sean Connery impression though. Andy 21:34 That's right. I've been working on this Connery impression for quite a while now. And I think I finally nailed it. Oh, yeah, I'm Sean Connery. Sam 21:44 Nice. So, boy, I did not enjoy this movie. I don't think it really travels well out of the 90s. And, of course, you know, I will stand behind a lot of Jerry Bruckheimer movies. I will not stand behind a Jerry Bruckheimer movie directed by Michael Bay, Michael Bay is clearly the problem. Out of the two of these people going back and watching this movie, I realized this was an excuse to get old man bond, who swore a lot. And so what I realized was, this is old man, Logan. And so two part question is Logan, a better version of the rock, and two is bringing back Sean Connery and having him say the F word. A good reason for any movie to exist. Tessa 22:35 I mean, I think there are a lot of versions of this movie that are better than the rock. So Logan is clearly a better movie. I like that Logan's a Western to which I think works better than the Alcatraz setting of this particular movie. You know, I I did enjoy all of the bond jokes. I did enjoy all of the nods to bond and this. I enjoyed. Like basically how at any moment Sean Connery was about to ask for a martini shaken not stirred, or to sleep with somebody like I enjoyed all of that. But it just seemed more like a gimmick. And he definitely dominated this movie in a movie that has Nicolas Cage in it. He overshadowed Nicolas Cage in a movie. Andy 23:19 And keep in mind that this is Nicholas Cage coming off from his Oscar win from Leaving Las Vegas. Sam 23:25 Nicolas Cage man, that is a whole thing. I mean, he's done at this point. He's done Moonstruck with Cher. He's done with the Coen Brothers, he's done raising Arizona. He's done. The Neo noir Western Red Rock West. He's won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas, which is a deeply deeply traumatic movie. And then he goes on this action movie Bender, which is just insane. There's also a really great arc, if you track the arc of the rock to conair. To face off, he starts off as the hero transforms into the hero who is imprisoned wrongly and ends as the villain. Andy 24:15 And in the Rocky breaks into a prison. Sam 24:18 It's I mean, come on. Tessa 24:21 So based on this rewatch, or this watch, I guess, because the only one I rewatched was the next one, we're going to talk about Mission Impossible. There are a couple of things that I gather we were concerned with in the 90s. We were concerned with white terrorists who had liquid explosives and nerve gas. Those are two things that we were very, very concerned about in the 90s. But we were also very concerned about prison, being in prison wrongly. And just sort of the trappings of prison I think, and we can talk about that when we get to Con Air. But these are things that I noticed throughout all of these movies. And Sam 24:59 because you guys We're like six years old. I'll tell you part of the reason that this is such a big deal in the 90s is we don't have the Russians anymore. The 90s are this weird time where we're trying to figure out who we're supposed to be scared of. And there's a really interesting brief period in the 90s, where we said, You know who the real villains are white extremists. Somewhere along the way, we forgot. But all we need to do is watch a bunch of 90s action movies and we could remember who the real enemy is. Speaking of national treasure, we're going to segue from Nicolas Cage to Jon Voight. Ah, Unknown Speaker 25:42 huh. All right. Andy 25:45 I know three missed sin Sam 25:46 that works so well, like I pulled the lift. All right. Andy 25:52 Speaking of white extremists, to everyone should be afraid of Sam 25:55 Angelina Jolie's father. So we went for a walk and we kind of shook out the rock. We came back with another 1996 film Mission Impossible, based on the 1960s television show, directed by Brian depalma. And starring Tom Cruise, Jon Voight. Thing rames john Marino, Kristin Scott, Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave and national treasure Emilio esta vez. Tom Cruise steps into the shoes of iconic IMF agent Ethan Hunt in a shocking turn of events. Andy, I'm gonna go to you first because synergy. Andy 26:36 Dun, dun, dun dun dun, dun, dun. And I've just been kind of jamming out to the theme song in my head or not even the full theme song just like the first. The first 45 seconds of the theme song. This movie is fine. It is super fun. But also, it's so weird that we had this particular one movie on this list this week, because I am talking about my attempts to speedrun Mission Impossible the Nintendo 64 game on Brenda shows podcast ultra 64. Steve got me I will be talking with him. When this comes out. It'll be last week's episode. So ultra 64. Mission Impossible. The Video Game, a game that I have attempted to speed run. Sam 27:29 So we have Andy talking about an adaptation of an adaptation of a TV show. Which Tessa is much more familiar with than I am as somebody who's familiar with the original television show. Does this movie have any redeeming quality beyond proof of concept for a Tom Cruise franchise? Tessa 27:52 Oh, I think so. I actually think this movie is very clever. I grew up watching the Mission Impossible show. In fact, I watched the show a long time before Tom, I saw the Tom Cruise film, I loved that show as a kid, we would get the discs from Amazon or from Netflix, with the with the show on it. And we would just like watch them. And they are they're actually really good. And I would highly recommend that if you are into heists or into spy movies at all that you would really enjoy this show. It is not like the Tom Cruise franchise has become which I like the Tom Cruise franchise, it is a very different. It's more of an ensemble type of show where they had a rotating cast of characters, but it was mostly the same people who would get together to do these sort of clever little missions for the IMF, the US government, right? This whole idea of disavowing them if they get caught or whatever. This movie does such a clever thing in that it sets itself up to be a continuation of the ensemble show in the in the opening sequence, right? It has the theme song, it has the different people being featured parts of the team, we get to see the beginning of an IMF mission where they're all like they're putting those pieces together, they've got the face disguises, which are from the show, they have all these bugs and cool gadgets that they're gonna use. And then 10 minutes into the film, everybody but Tom Cruise's character dies, right, which is definitely not something that the show would have ever done. Andy 29:24 In one of the most intense scenes. I had in like one of the most tense scenes I've ever seen. When I saw this when I was like 10. Like, that is terrifying. Tessa 29:37 Yeah, especially if you went into this, which I was the first time I watched it, thank you. This was going to be like the show. So it was it was very, very intense. And this is supposed to set up Ethan Hunt as his own Mission Impossible character. It gives us some of the things that we get in the later I think better installments in the franchise, right? We At the iconic scene where he's on the on the wire being lowered down into the the CIA. What is it a mainframe? I don't know what it's called. Anyway, the MacGuffin, and we haven't changed the MacGuffin chamber and NOC list. Yeah, the Yeah, the knock list. And we get so we get some really cool like stunts that we're gonna get in that are only improved on in future movies. But we still get that sort of hasty spy like them doing impossible things. It's good. I think that the later movies are better in so far as the Tom Cruise aspect of it goes. But I really think that the way that they took the ingredients of the show, and made it into a single star action film works really, really well here. Andy 30:48 No one thinks this is the best movie in the franchise each for a while each of the movies is trying to do something different, but I don't think that there's a bad movie in the franchise. Sam 30:58 So with the exception of Point Break, I saw all of these in the 90s. I saw Point Break for the first time about eight years ago, I was not allowed to see rated R movies when I was 11 years old. So I did not see Terminator two, until a few years later. I didn't see Point Break till about eight years ago, the rest of these movies I saw in the 90s and have not seen since. So I was really excited to get back to Mission Impossible and see how well it held up. I didn't enjoy it much at all. I don't know I think I don't know if it's Brian De Palma. Or what or you know, trying to hew too closely to the original. Um, this may have been an expectation thing, but I will tell you the final two movies that we're going to talk about came out the same year in 1997, which is raizy. same month, man. I saw both of these in the theater. This was the year I graduated from high school. This is this is this and matchbox 20 debut album are sadly two of the hallmarks of 1997. Man, I gotta tell you, like 1997 and 1998 were real mediocre in a lot of lot of ways, and then it got worse with new metal. But anyway, the first of our 1997 Nicolas Cage double bill is Con Air directed by Simon West who went on to Tomb Raider. mediocrity. I don't know. The important thing here is we have another Bruckheimer produced film. This one is much better than kawneer but like conair It stars Nicolas Cage with him this time is john cusec, john malkovich, Ving rhames again, Steve Buscemi, Monica Potter and faith hills version of the classic hit song, how do I live? And for anybody who lived through the 90s and wasn't seven at this time. This house is a LeAnn Rimes. How do I live house? Okay. Army Ranger Cameron Poe is wrongly imprisoned after killing a man who assaults him and his wife. hours after his honorable discharge from the army after serving his sentence. He's finally going home after a ride on Con Air, Andy? Andy 33:38 Yes. Sam 33:39 This is a monkey off your backlog. This is the first one we've talked about today. That is new to you. Unknown Speaker 33:45 Correct? Sam 33:46 How did you feel? Oh, Andy 33:49 this was such a delight to watch in all the worst ways. I Nick ages accent to the score, which by the way, this score, every fight every action moment, is the score is specifically being played. And it sounds like something from an act three. It sounds like the swelling of the final climax. They just throw the climax movies into here. You've got to reverse Fast and Furious. Either five or six with Unknown Speaker 34:24 it six. Andy 34:25 It's six. Okay with the runway right? And here you got the exact opposite where it's a 45 mile long runway because the plane crashes and just keeps going and it just keeps going through buildings. It goes everywhere. It is great all the way through the Las Vegas Strip. It is wonderful and I finally got the hole put the money back in the box. Sam 34:50 Would you put the money back in the box? Andy 34:53 Yes, yes, I would have Sam 34:56 Tessa I know that. You said many The exact things that Andy just said, What else you got? Tessa 35:06 I mean, I agree with everything Andy just said this, this movie like the soundtrack killed me, man, like every single time that guitar happened over him like jumping through the air. It just it killed me every time. This movie was so strange because I enjoyed parts of it. parts of it are deeply, deeply problematic, and then other parts of it. I think the whole obsession with imprisonment, I think is really interesting, because let's face it, the demographic of this prison is not right. It is way too white to actually be reflective of the people who are in our actual carceral system. And I think to me, this shows an obsession with criminality. I think it's the thing that keeps white girls coming back to crime podcasts. This particular movie reflects that sort of attitude. I do like Steve Buscemi. I thought he was super creepy in this and so was john malkovich. However, I don't know I just I had a hard time believing that Nick the premise of this movie, which is Nicolas Cage would be imprisoned for what he did at the beginning. Like, come on. He's in the army Andy 36:16 clearly explain it. They clearly explained that because he's an army, an Army Ranger. He's registered as a deadly weapon and he should know better than to use. So yeah, he goes to prison, Tessa 36:28 but there but there are witnesses that can say it was self defense and he's from the army. There's no way a judge would have convicted him of years in prison for this. And that like really bothered me like and I usually am not a stickler for that kind of thing. The other thing that really bothered me is how many times guns were fired on this plane. Like they should all have died in the first 10 minutes of this movie from all the guns being fired because bullets would depressurize the cabin like you're not supposed to. Andy 36:56 I'm gonna go ahead and pull up the the fact check that I know someone on the internet has done they are Tessa 37:01 always telling you you cannot fire guns on airplanes. Andy 37:05 Okay, from IMDb goofs. So, if it's not up here in IMDb, goofs. it's it's a it's a scientific fact. Unknown Speaker 37:12 No, no, I'm gonna push back on that one. Andy 37:16 It says bullet holes go missing and then reappear throughout throughout the thing that that's the only bullet. Sam 37:23 So you know why. So this really answers the question if I john Cusack's character was so mad about guns on the plane, is that he knows his plane prisoner transfer system operates in like an alternate dimension. And he doesn't want people to know. Tessa 37:43 I just, you know, and I'm not usually like, we're gonna get to face off and I'm gonna be like, yeah, none of this pulled me out of like the realm of reality here but like for this movie, it just kept like grading on me that they were trying to say something about imprisonment. They were trying to say something about the army and being a good person in prison, but it just parts of it just didn't really ring true to me. It was a lot of fun, but this just didn't seem as like genuine of a movie. I liked it better than the rock though, because it didn't take itself so seriously. One last thing about this movie though, that I forgot to mention. Colm meany is in it and I will always love a Star Trek person in a movie. I'm always like Star Trek. Andy 38:23 I always remember him from hell on wheels. Sam 38:26 So before we move past Jerry Bruckheimer, I bring up Jerry Bruckheimer. And I've mentioned his name like a dozen times so far. Because the 90s were so big with Jerry Bruckheimer like he was a presence. And and I think that's diminished a little bit in recent years. I just want to tell you, I want to give you the list of movies that Jerry Bruckheimer produced, not EP not executive produced. All right. action movies, starting with Beverly Hills Cop in 1984. Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop Two Days of Thunder, bad boys. Crimson Tide, Dangerous Minds, the rock Con Air Armageddon, enemy of the state. Gone in 60 seconds. Coyote Ugly. Remember the Titans, Pearl Harbor, Blackhawk down kangaroo jack, Pirates of the Caribbean. So the 80s in the 90s. Once we get into the 2000s, we kind of get into we get into army ganda, or Armed Forces aganda with Pearl Harbor. And then we get kind of a diminishment of returns there. And then he turns to CSI, which will make him more money than he ever needs. And just in case Pirates of the Caribbean, but the 80s and the 90s were really Jerry Bruckheimer his time To shine. And finally, we're bringing this plane in for a landing 1997 face directed by john woo starring Nicolas Cage john travolta, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon, Margaret Cho and cch pounder, the most 90s of cast lists ever. It was just missing one owner writer, and we would have had Bingo. As far as the plot goes, past Tessa. Tessa 40:28 I mean, so this is gonna completely contradict what I just said about Con Air. This plot is perfect, and I wouldn't have changed a single thing about it. And the reason why is because john woo knows how to make just completely over the top ridiculous action movies. I mean, if you're gonna do this, do it like lean all the way in and he does. The best way that I can describe this plot is that it's a lot of bullets and facial dysmorphia. body dysmorphia. Basically john Travolta's character is tracking Nicolas Cage who plays just like the most creepy over the top terrorist again, really concerned with white terrorism in these movies. And he decides that the best way to infiltrate his group is to switch faces with him. And the rest of the movies, just a bunch of sways face. The rest of the movie is just a bunch of face switching. Sam 41:21 Alright, Andy, go to you. And I want to ask you this question. I have been trying for the better part of five years to get tested to watch this movie. She is clearly in the wrong for waiting this long, and she knows it now. Part of the difficulty here is that it is so hard to describe how amazing and insane this film is. I saw it three times in the theater that summer. Andy 41:47 You were a lonely high school graduate. Sam 41:48 You know, it's funny. The reason I saw it three times is I kept going with people who hadn't seen it yet, because I loved it so much. Andy 41:55 You are not alone. My high school graduate. Sam 41:57 I was not. I wasn't it wasn't at the same time. It was the best of times it was the worst of times. David Gordon green should direct like a series based on my life anyway. How would you describe face off to someone who hasn't seen it? But should? Which is everybody? Right? Andy 42:17 No one has seen this movie. So Sam 42:20 fortunately, it's Yeah, nobody's seen it. So you really got a lot to work with here. All right. Andy 42:25 So basically, it is a violent, Freaky Friday. Sam 42:30 Freaky Friday with dubs. Andy 42:32 Right. Speaking of which, I just want to reaffirm to everyone that the movie freaky was wonderful as a Freaky Friday, but a horror movie. So you should if you enjoy horror comedies, you should definitely give it a shot. Sam 42:46 So is based off the missing link between Freaky Friday and freaky? Andy 42:50 Yes, yes, that people don't actually know this. They form a cohesive trilogy. And that's why the slashes in there, right. It's Freaky Friday face. Off freaky. Sam 43:04 I like it. So speaking of liking things, did you like this movie? Andy 43:09 I i was i was enthralled by this movie. liking it is a different story. But I will say I always enjoy a john Carroll Lynch role and he did not disappoint Sam 43:21 a few months ago. I have no concept of time. But a few months ago, I talked about hard boiled on this very podcast, john woos final Hong Kong film before moving to Hollywood. And of course, this is the middle movie of his Hollywood trilogy. The first one is Broken Arrow with Christian Slater and john travolta. And the third is Mission Impossible two, which are kind of the wrap arounds of a couple of movies that we've talked about so far today. And I'm looking forward in 2021. watching those two movies as well as Mission Impossible three and four again, just to kind of have some good times. But I want to tell you one thing. There was a film between hard boiled and Broken Arrow. It was the 1993 john woo directed Shawn Claude Van Damme starring hard target. Tessa 44:21 I just love how Nicolas Cage and john travolta play off of each other in this film like at some point, john travolta is doing his best Nicolas Cage impression and Nicolas Cage is doing his best john travolta impression and I just think that I don't even know how to explain this movie at all. There's also a lot of wrongful imprisonment in it and I do have to issue a content warning for this one for our listeners. There is some psych psychiatric torture in this movie as well which I was not expecting. Just got to put that out there. My favorite moment and I think that this is the moment that convinced me this was amazing is the shootout scene in the In LA, yeah, the shootout is the loft penthouse shootout scene where they both say like, I guess we might as well kill each other and they both hold a gun to the mirror. And so they're holding a gun to themselves. I think that that is one of the most iconic moments that I've seen out of any of these movies so far. Andy 45:19 Also, I just want to say that sounds like a dumb shot. It is incredibly clever. It is mind blowingly clever. Sam 45:28 The other thing and as I told you, I saw this movie three times in the theater. But seeing it now all the twinning in this movie, obviously, they're twins of each other. They're the twin guns. There's the the they might as well be twins, the young boys. There's, you know, basically Castor and Pollux kind of operate as, you know, siblings, but twins, there's just so much attention paid to doubles and twinning. In this movie, john was doing something that I think is pretty incredible. Andy 46:04 Are you guys ready for a episode of Andy's preconceived misconceptions? Sam 46:09 On today's episode of Andy's misconceived preconceptions, Andy 46:14 I have to say, the Opus for this movie as to why they swap faces. I, I thought it was the opposite. I thought it would end up being that Nick Cage captures the FBI or, you know, Archer, and decides that he's ready to drop being the bad guy, and wants to mess with his archrival one more time and swap faces. But no, it's it's actually way more logical than that and fits better within the story. And I remember talking to my wife as this was happening, there's a scene where Nick they think Nick Cage is in a coma. So that's why they swapped the face. And I was like, you know, it's really weird that they would just go ahead and put john Travolta's face on Nick cages unconscious body for like, No reason. And then Nick Cage wakes up, and he has no face and you barely see it. And he forces it to the doctor to do the entire procedures. Like that makes so much more sense. Thank you, john Woo, or whoever wrote this movie for for making a screenplay that answers my questions right after I asked them. Sam 47:22 Andy, you just reminded me of something. And this has been an episode of Andy's misconceived preconceptions. I was I was ripping on the whole Archer thing. Archer and pray, you know, the guy's last name is Archer and there's pray. So what I realized was, so we've talked about this Charlie's there and reboot, or remake of diehard. I'm gonna propose today, a Taylor Swift reboot of face off, because in her own words, she has been the archer and been the prey. Who could ever leave her? But who would stay? Andy 47:59 This has been Sam's brilliant ideas. Taylor Swift call us we will write this movie. Sam 48:05 So that was our marathon for the year and I think it was a success. Tessa, how do you feel? Tessa 48:13 I have watched so many movies. I am ready for all of the Christmas movies now. Sam 48:19 Andy, it sounds like you enjoyed the Nicolas Cage double feature. Andy 48:23 Yes. Yes, I did. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sam 48:26 So I think Tessa, it took her about half an hour after the end of this one. And I'm just so exhausted. I'm ready to pass out. Tessa is already talking about what next year's will be. So far, the front runner appears to be and I kid you not? x men. Tessa 48:51 I haven't seen those first films in years. I actually kind of want to know how well they stand up. So maybe next December? I don't know. We have a whole year to think about it. Sam 49:01 I think if we do we're gonna watch the rope cut. Finally. Andy 49:06 I think you guys should do the Fast and Furious but the x men. Yeah, the 25 days of x men or however many Sam 49:13 25 days of x men. You know, she actually mentioned that in the last app. possibly doing that. So it'll be interesting. Tune in next time when we'll be back to our regular shenanigans. Tesla gets weird with Square Enix and Kingdom Hearts. Andy watches indie darling Thunder Road, and I'll go to Mars to fight demons from hell. Where can you find us, Andy? Andy 49:39 You can find me on Twitter and letterboxed at Hebrews paleo, Unknown Speaker 49:43 Tessa, Tessa 49:44 you can find me on Twitter and letterboxed at suela Tessa Swehla spelled sw EH la. Sam 49:52 Find me on twitter at Sam underscore Morris and letterbox that Archie Leach nine send us your thoughts about 90s action movies, the monkeys you've crossed Have your own list this holiday season. Monkeys that you'd like to hear us talk about on future episodes, or anything else that comes to mind. Find us on Twitter and Instagram at monkey backlog Email us at monkey off my backlog@gmail.com our theme song is hot shot by Scott Holmes it can be found on Scott Holmes music.com please rate review and subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon podcast, Google podcasts or where ever you listen to podcast. Get that monkey off your back Transcribed by https://otter.ai