Sam 0:00 live my life a quarter mile at a time. Tessa 0:03 You can't play Christmas music until after Thanksgiving Sam 0:24 Welcome to monkey off my backlog the podcast where we exercise our pop culture demons by tackling your immediate to do list one week at a time. I'm your host the lawful good character of this podcast, Sam Morris and with me is the lady to my Dom but with better representation Tessa Swehla Tessa 0:41 Hello, Sam 0:41 Andy is still taking some time off. It's been a long month without you my friend And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again but joining us in the third chair this week is friend of the podcast our go to person for all things fast and furious Megan spell Hello. Can I be chaotic neutral? Do you care? I guess I don't care. I just like that's the energy I would like to bring. Okay. In this episode, I finally find out what the big deal about Riddick is. Megan finds out what happens when you combine Vin Diesel with D and D. and Tessa gets her girl fight on. And in case you haven't picked up on it yet. We're excited because f nine is finally making its way to the theater in just a few short days. Tessa 1:31 Let's go ahead and start with Sam. You watched the film The sci fi horror film pitch black. Sam, what even is this movie? Sam 1:41 Well, as you know, pitch black is a spin off of one of the fast imperious movies it does. Carlos bandoleros Tessa 1:52 I mean, I would come in here with a really cool rap. But don't do that. I don't think that would be appropriate. No, I don't think it'd be good. Like I would try it would be 10 out of 10 for enthusiasm, but the rest of it would be zeros. Okay. Sam 2:11 All right. So So pitchblack is is not a film that stars los bandoleros but I would watch that movie. Pitch Black is a allegedly sci fi horror film from the year 2000. co Written and directed by one David Toohey and starring Vin Diesel as well as rata Mitchell Cole Hauser and Keith David. It's what happens when a Muslim preacher and his acolytes a teenager, two prospectors, a merchant, a cop and a super criminal walk into a bar. Just kidding. They walk onto a spaceship getting the cryo freeze and they crash on a planet. That's that's what pitch black is. Unknown Speaker 2:54 I've never seen pitch black. You haven't? Megan? No, I haven't. But I love Keith David. I think he's underused. Tessa 3:01 But you've seen a Chronicles of Riddick game Chronicles. I wanted to share only once. Well pitch black is a direct prequel to Chronicles of Riddick. It's not really even a prequel. It came out first, but Sam 3:17 normally they just called those movies. Tessa 3:21 So is it a horror movie or is it an action movie? Sam 3:25 Okay, so Megan, I'm really sorry to spoil this but so the Vin Diesel character Riddick does not die at the end of this movie. Okay, no one dies indeed. would be it'd be weird if he did, and then they made a sequel. Or actually, if this is the prequel, then they just make the movie. Tessa 3:46 It's still a sequel. Sam 3:47 That I think we know how Hollywood works. I think we're ready. Tessa 3:51 We've cracked it. Sam 3:52 We did. First of all, this movie cost $23 million to make maegan off the top of your head. Do you remember how much the first? The Fast and the Furious movie cost to make less than that? I would guess, way less? No, no, the budget for pitchblack was 23 million. The budget for the first the Fast and the Furious was 38. That's insane. Because like I obviously love fast, furious, but I don't think you see it on the screen and Unknown Speaker 4:24 that one? I mean, I know it's expensive to shoot in LA, but like literally the big heist and that is they're like knocking off the Best Buy truck. Stealing DVD players like considering what they do now I would have been like, I don't know what 15 Sam 4:38 right. So like, how expensive is it to shoot in LA? Well, apparently you can construct an alien planet for less than it costs to shoot in LA, I guess. Well, so now I need to ask you can you? Not so much can you it's you right so well. So here's the deal. This is a plan in it that has, so they crash land on this planet. It's got three sons, which means it's in daylight all the time. Almost all the time. You know, years without a sunset, they happen to crash land just at the right time. And and the sun's go down right after they discover a geological survey team has been decimated by some sort of photo sensitive underground creature high jinks ensue. It's a horror movie. It's a sci fi movie. But this movie wants to be an action movie. One of the things that's genuinely weird about this movie is the way that it's cut, paste. The way that the shots work in the movie, it doesn't know what it wants to be in terms of genre. It should be an action movie, because it's a bunch of people running for their lives. You know, basically running and gunning. That's an action movie. It's got Vin Diesel, who has action star painted on his forehead and the rest of his head. But that's not what the movie is. It's clearly a horror movie. It's like it's trying to be alien. Which makes sense because I understand that Chronicles of Riddick is very aliens, and alien, great movie who wouldn't want to be alien? Right? But there's a lot of genre confusion over this movie. I think it's an action movie that ends up being a horror movie, which which makes it weird, but also good. Tessa 6:25 So does this movie work if it has this genre confusion? Sam 6:29 Okay, so the bit with Vin Diesel's character Riddick is he's had his eyes polished, I guess is the term we would use. So he sees real good and dark but not so good when it's not dark. Well, that's gonna be a problem on a three sun planet. Well, not when the sun goes down trail. Unknown Speaker 6:47 Yeah, and everyone else's eyes are conditioned to the light. They're not prepared. Right? So Sam 6:53 Riddick is basically the predator, because he sees with the heat seeking vision. This movie is basically alien versus predator, which I have not seen and have no idea, but it's aliens versus a predator type of character in Vin Diesel. I think this movie is unintentionally very funny. But again, the way that the movie is constructed with the quick horror film type cuts, juxtaposed with the wannabe action scenes, it's so weird, but it works because it's kind of original. And they're doing it on such a small budget. You know, they have to rely on you know, like, Keith David, Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell fresh off of umpteen million episodes of neighbors to some quality acting and they kind of do do I want to talk do I want to talk about the other characters Riddick is or why he's on the ship. Oh, have I have I not even talked about that? Does it matter? Kinda. Oh, okay. Vin Diesel. Well, Riddick is a murderer who has murdered people for some reason. And he's a bad guy. For some reason, motivation, not necessary, I guess. He wakes up out of cryo sleep, and is basically chaotic, evil, but probably actually chaotic neutral. The point is, we don't know anything about him. We don't know his motivations. We know nothing, which is either really bad writing, or really clever writing, but it allows him to play off of Radha Mitchell's pilot character, Keith, David's Muslim preacher on his way to new Mecca character. And Cole housers. cop slash bounty hunter character really well. But because you don't know his motivations, you truly don't know how he's going to react to these characters in it. It makes it interesting. Tessa 8:54 Was this before after the first Fast and Furious movie? I think this would have been before that that was 2001. Right. So and so this was 2000 right? Yeah. So how does this character because this is really this and Chronicles of Riddick are really and there's a third one that's not as good. This is really his other franchise? I would say, maybe triple x would be the other one. But how would we compare this character of Riddick, who is really like you said, He's really chaotic evil, especially in the first one, because you really, he seems to be out for himself. He's kind of presented in some really serial killer ways. Like I can't, I couldn't help but think of Con Air this time while I was watching it, like there were just some real similarities between his character and Steve Buscemi his character in that film. How would he compare to Dom who is the character that he's probably most known for? Sam 9:50 Well, but that's the thing about the first movie right when when Brian is trying to infiltrate, you know, there's that first scene where he goes to To the place that gets the soda. And you know, that's the first time we really see DOM, getting eyes on Brian and he's immediately like, I'm gonna kill that guy. It's like, you just assume you know what his motivations are. You just assume that this is this is machismo, personified. This is a thief. This is somebody who's going to like he's the bad guy of the film, right? But then by the end of the movie, we kind of understand that he isn't. I think the same thing more or less happens in this movie. Probably a little less but close. Tessa 10:36 Do you think that fans of Fast and Furious would enjoy this film? Sam 10:41 Fans of Fast and Furious? I don't know. Probably not fans of Vin Diesel. Yeah. And and that's a Venn diagram that has a lot of overlap probably. Tessa 10:52 So are you gonna watch Chronicles of Riddick then, which I have to warn you that makes a very, very hard genre turn? Sam 11:00 She asks, not knowing that I have proposed a later in the year double feature aliens and Chronicles of Riddick that's the plan. That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna watch the heart genre shift, double feature somewhere James Carey spit up his dream all you got to do is release them avatar movies and we'll stop talking about I mean, what do you want me to do? Watch the Abyss again? Unknown Speaker 11:31 Like I don't know. He's like Don't compare me to Chronicles of Riddick. Tessa 11:39 I'm a serious filmmaker. James Cameron sounds I just kind of assume he's a little grouchy, Sam 11:46 high pitch black shadow, right. And now it's Unknown Speaker 11:54 pitch black the number one movie of all time ever. No, I reread avatar. To be Avengers. Tessa 12:03 The adventure? Boy, what are we going to get our James Cameron movie with Vin Diesel in it? Unknown Speaker 12:09 I cannot imagine that. That would be a very chill place to be. Tessa 12:13 No, no, not at all. Not at all. Speaking of films that are not very chill places to be fast nine comes out this month. See what I did there? See my transition? Sam 12:26 I was actually gonna say the this the set of the the James Cameron. Vin Diesel collab has like a no Dwayne Johnson allowed sign. And then he said speaking nine, another film that has a no Dwayne Johnson allowed sign. So the the film comes out on the 24th. Thursday the 24th, which is a good three days after the release of this one. So this episode, yeah, okay. Yeah. That's how time works, I think comes Tessa 12:56 out in three days for all of you living in the future. Unknown Speaker 12:59 You should get tickets now. I you know, I just think everyone should lock down their seats. You know, stay safe social distance. But our theater here's when selling out really quickly, to fight tooth and nail to get into friggin in the heights. Yet See, we Sam 13:17 live in a place where that is not a problem, man. We don't have a lot of good amenities. But we do have a movie theater, where like Black Widow tickets were released. And then like 30 minutes later, I was like, oh, best seats. There we go. Tessa 13:32 So Megan, we talked to you back in December about your hopes and dreams for fast nine. Let's update them based on what we know now based on the several trailers that have come out between right then and now. What are you looking forward to the most in this movie? Return upon obviously, number one return upon. Unknown Speaker 13:53 I mean, something that I'm very worried about is the john cena of it all. I just like I know, we're adding like another family dynamic, but sometimes it just seems like they just bring in these other guys. And I don't know if they're gonna click with the group. I don't know. It's just, it's gonna be interesting. I'm fine with I mean, it's it's like, I just feel like now i i can see the movie in my head is starting to form but the only part that that I don't know what they're gonna do with is Han because I'm like, we still don't know how he's back. Like we there is no explanation. And it's gonna be bad, but I'm ready for Sam 14:33 this movie takes place in 2002. Yeah, they're all gonna have if they kick. I don't think they can do that because Charlie's isn't this one. I think it has to be a proper timeline. But if they were to go back and reset the timeline again. That'd be my favorite. Because that's insane. Tessa 14:59 I guess the question is Do they go to space first? Or do they time travel first? Unknown Speaker 15:03 I think you have to go to space first and then time travel. If, if this is this sense of time traveling, like, I know we're doing a goof, but I don't think it's off the table. And it stresses me out to a degree. I don't think I don't want to think that. Tessa 15:22 Fast and Furious were like, nothing's off the table like anything could happen. And that might be the real magic of this series. Like anything could happen. Sam 15:31 Right? Here's the thing, like this series has brought in the rock. I can't remember his name. No, no, the other wrestler. We were just talking about Meghan. Unknown Speaker 15:44 JOHN CENA. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Yeah. wrestlers. I just know fast, furious. Sam 15:51 Well, yeah, so here's the thing this this franchise has, has brought in the rock and john cena. So when I say which one is more likely, they go sub orbital, or the edge shows up and they steal the money plane. Unknown Speaker 16:07 I I like the idea of like, a more Ocean's 11 heist type thing. Like it's like the next one is there's actually a wrestling event and or boxing, maybe they'd pivot to boxing, boxing seems like it would have more money. I don't know anything about this. People don't judge me. But I think that would be interesting. But I, I think we talked about this last time I was here and I don't mean to rehash everything I've said But what I'd really like is for them to go really big with this one, or maybe the next one. And then for the last one to just like make it really small again, and just really intimate. Like about like the core crew. You know, Tessa 16:46 the last Fast and Furious movie is just Dom toretto teaching like all of the children how to drive like it's actually just like this movie are about his son getting his driver's license, like, essentially the plot of the past. Sam 17:04 I really liked the idea of the boxing thing though, because it's like, there's there's like a joke there about how they're going to go. You know, they're they're gonna go to a match and somebody has to be like a like an expert in the squared circle or something. And john scene is like, I got this Don't worry, wink wink at the camera. And then they walk in and it's boxing. And Michelle Rodriguez is like Adam away losers have this. Unknown Speaker 17:31 Yeah, I just think I like the idea of I don't think that's incorrect. Like, I can't think exactly off the top of my head. But I'm certain there's been a scene at 1000 furious movie where someone is picked up from a boxing gym or recruited while you know, sparring? Um, if not, I can't believe they haven't done it. And this idea is free. Anyone who's in? Tessa 17:55 So we know that Han is coming back. We know that giordana brewsters coming back. Yeah. How do we feel about her return to Unknown Speaker 18:03 I was surprised I like don't get me wrong. We've discussed Fast and Furious has not always been great with female representation. And they're probably like, we can't just go cutting one weapon. But also I think you just end up doing more cartwheels around why Brian isn't near, you know? Tessa 18:24 Yeah, that's true. Because like the whole reason that like the last couple of movies, they've always made sure to bring him up like this idea of like, Well, you know, who could handle this? And they're like, No, we all scores like. Unknown Speaker 18:39 This is like pretty high stakes. Yeah, if I was part of a crew, and then had a family, and they're like, we're going to space, I'd want to know. Tessa 18:48 You could just at least give me a call, guys. Yeah. Jordan, after in an interview recently said that she would be open to the idea of a all female Fast and Furious spin off with Michelle Rodriguez and Eva Mendez and Helen Mirren and Charlie's throne. How, what do we think about that as a potential concept? I Unknown Speaker 19:11 mean, I just simply must reiterate, I'll watch any dumb Fast and Furious content they put out Yeah, I can't, I can't say I wouldn't enjoy that. I have no idea what that would look like. Um, they would have to do that thing where they're like, well, I guess this is the group that has the get together because, you know, for whatever really nice reason it has to be these exact people. I mean, the fact that Helen Mirren is in these movies at all thrills. Unknown Speaker 19:39 So I Tessa 19:41 she's in this one, but Jason Statham isn't like Yeah, she was supposed to be kind of a bit character as a Unknown Speaker 19:48 mom and now I showed her like to be Luke Evans and say, thumbs mom, and then stay thumbs like, Well, me and the rock have our own sub franchise now. So you can stay here. Tessa 19:58 Yeah, she stays on Main though. Like Yeah, yeah, Unknown Speaker 20:01 I think that's I think that's correct for her. I don't think she's the get messed up in this whole hog versus Sha thing. Sam 20:08 hobs versus Sha versus the box office versus Sha versus Silva. Tessa 20:16 All right. Well, I'm excited. I'm very excited about this. I was not excited about this this time last year, but since we've been through this whole journey together I am it is now like my must see summer movies. So I'm very excited about that. You hear Sam 20:29 that Black Widow? Tessa 20:31 That's true Black Widow, like kind of lost some steam for me. I'm excited, but I'm just, it's hurt me too many times. All right. Let's go ahead and move on to the next Vin Diesel movie on our list. Megan, you watched the Last Witch Hunter. Tell Unknown Speaker 20:50 us about this is the second I was given an option to watch a Vin Diesel movie. I knew I wanted to watch this one. I've needed an excuse for far too long. And I just every once in a while I've looked up the plot and been like, oh, he Raven. So this is famously was written like Vin was an advisor for the writer of this movie, and the main character is based heavily on zins real life d&d character, which is the funniest thing anyone could do ever to me as someone who loves d&d, so I spent the majority of this movie trying to figure out what type of character Vin Diesel plays I think I've settled on it's some sort of vengeance Paladin, based on powers and you know, his opinions on things. But I should have known like, Paladin is like not to get too deep in the DND Woods over here, but like, that's some real Vin, Vin shit. Anyway, um, so the Last Witch Hunter is, uh, pretty much incomprehensible. Where Vin Diesel plays a very earnest Witch Hunter, who is kind of just goes down this rabbit hole of finding clues and is trying to, he works for an organization. And they're trying to destroy the witch queen. It all comes down to Oh, well, you have to go by this ingredient to make this spell. And then it's not a very good movie, but I didn't not enjoy my time with it to be honest. Tessa 22:24 So what I'm hearing is that it's exactly like a d&d game. Like you have to do a bunch of fetch quests first. Yes, Unknown Speaker 22:30 exactly. Except this is and this is what I found very interesting about the movie is it's like, consider because I knew that going into this the characters based off vins d&d character, and I've seen every Fast and Furious movie, he loves family, he like does not have a party. Like this is like kind of a solo quest. Like, like, he is one cool, man. And that's like, you know, he meets up with people, but it's not really like there is like, oh is a group of five and we're all very well rounded at each bring our own thing to the table. Like that's not the dynamic and I thought it would be because why would it not be? Tessa 23:06 So it's almost like playing d&d on solo mode. Yeah, but that's not fun. That's not really, maybe it's like playing the Witcher. Unknown Speaker 23:15 I think I am not a huge video game person, but it feels like a video game movie to me. I am by I never never played the Witcher or anything like that. I've played Stardew Valley. It feels like that to me, because it's very much like oh, and then you have to go here to buy this make a memory spell and then you have to visit another witch and, you know, every time he has to talk to a witch, he's not happy. But you know, this is for the greater good type thing. And I will say the cast is kind of funny. Like this is a relatively recent movies from 2015. And it has Elijah Wood. Michael Caine. Rose Leslie, you know, Tessa 23:52 recognizable people. Yeah, great, great actors. Unknown Speaker 23:55 And there is a really cool thing where to the characters allegedly to Michael Gaines, both are named Dolan and one of them is going 36 and one of them is Dolan. 37. I watched you know, this whole two hour something movie, I cannot remember which one is which. And they would just call him 36 and 37. And I'm like, I still don't know what. Yeah, Tessa 24:17 gosh, I'm like now trying to imagine Vin Diesel's d&d game, like does he play with like, does he play with Michelle Rodriguez and that group was Michelle Rodriguez too cool. Sam 24:27 Okay, so this is it plays within diesel. Unknown Speaker 24:32 This is an interesting thing. So another person who's really into d&d in Hollywood is Joe agnello. And he has been like in interviews and people have been like, Oh, you know, who else is really into d&d? Vin Diesel? And Joe manga Mel is like, kind of shady. And Ben like, yeah, I hear that a lot. But I know like everyone who plays in LA and I don't know anyone who plays with them, and like, what does that mean? Like I in my head, it's like Vin probably plays with like, some of his like, old like old friends, you know from way back, but I don't know it Tessa 25:04 was James Franco. Yeah. Sam 25:10 He plays with James Franco's character from Freaks and Geeks there. That's okay. Okay, that's good. Unknown Speaker 25:20 was gonna say he plays with someone who's playing James Franco. I would create him as a bard. But I mean, and then the funny thing, I mean, which is like kind of a classic Vin Diesel thing is like his character in I assume in d&d and in the movie is like, so overpowered at one point he has like immortality and I'm like, as a DM, I would absolutely never give any of my people any sort of immortality. Are you kidding? You have to fear death. Tessa 25:48 You have to have stakes, like there's no stakes. Unknown Speaker 25:52 Yeah. And then it very much feels like they're setting it up for a sequel. So I doubt that will happen. It's now been six years. But I can see where they would have wanted that. Tessa 26:05 So besides it being incomprehensible, how did it fare on your Vin Diesel ranking? Unknown Speaker 26:13 I appreciate he's, he's always earnest. Like he goes in and he's like, like, you know, sometimes you're laughing at him and not with him. And that's part of big Vin Diesel, I think. But he he's not pretending like he's fully in character and the characters insane. You know, Oh, I didn't have a bad time. It definitely is something I watched it stone cold, sober. And at the end, it was just like, okay, that just washed over me like a bath. I have no, I took in almost none of that. So, but it was an enjoyable experience. And I didn't make someone watch it with me. And I don't think they hate me. So I think it went okay. Sam 26:57 Yeah, that's that's the kind of recommendation we want here on monkey off my backlog. I made somebody watch it with me, and I don't think they hate me. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 27:05 I will say we talked about budget. The rumored budget for this is between 70 and $90 million. Um, it did make I think 150 globally because movies like this, you know, I guess do well, but when it came out, like I did not know anyone who is seeing this. Tessa 27:22 I vaguely remember previews of this. And like, it's from the movie you've described to me, it sounds like it was exactly what I thought it was when I saw previews. Yeah, it was character stack up against Dom toretto. Unknown Speaker 27:36 I mean, obviously, Dom Toronto, I would I would die for so it's kind of hard. Um, and the other thing is, I, this is gonna make me sound bad. I have like, I don't play paladins like that is just not the type of character I would ever play. So I understand why he would but I'm just like, this guy. Tessa 27:57 Oh, how does he stack up against Riddick because you have seen Chronicles of Riddick I think, Unknown Speaker 28:03 this like, I think Rick's Gosh, is gonna sound crazy, like a slightly more interesting. Like, this is not a very dynamic character who does not change over the course of this movie, and is just kind of getting bumped along task by task and, you know, not really challenging any of his preconceived notions, which might have made it a little more interesting to me. Sam 28:29 Alright, so, since we're doing budget this episode, we're talking about how much movies cost to make. We've talked about $200 million movies $38 million movies, $23 million movies, somewhere in the middle, but we're gonna take this next movie all the way to the Dr. Evil some of $1 million. What is girl fight Tessa Tessa 28:53 girl fight is a 2000 so we're going back to the year 2000 again, girl fight is a sports drama film that was directed by Karen Kusama, and I'm going to tell you what else Karen Kusama did in a moment. But I do want to say to our listeners, if you're looking this up on Google right now, girl fight is all one word, girl fight. There are several movies with that name. You're looking for the one that's all one word from 2000. It took me a while to find this movie because of that. So I just wanted to put that out there. But like I said, it was directed by Karen Kusama, who later directed and get this a on flux. And Jennifer's body save director did not know Well, I was watching this film, but it stars Michelle Rodriguez, which is why I am talking about it today. This was her first speaking role. This was her first role. She was 22 when this was film, she's playing an 18 year old a senior in high school but the basic premise of the film is that her character, Diana Guzman is a Latina high school student senior who gets into a lot of fights. She's very fun. She's from a very low income. And it's kind of implied at the beginning of the movie that her dad is his abusive family. But she keeps getting into trouble at school for starting these fights and then one day she goes to her brother's boxing gym and realizes that she wants to learn how to box. So she convinces the old grumpy owner of the chimp to teach her how to box. That is the premise of this movie. If you've seen a boxing movie, before you know what this movie is, Kusama really wanted to do a boxing movie that sort of inverted the male like boxing trope and do it with a lady and so that that is literally the impetus for this particular film. Sam 30:42 So she made a movie about a girl fight. Yeah, yeah, it's a million dollar movie that makes an indie movie. Tell us about the vibe of this movie. Tessa 30:50 You know, I was telling Sam about this, while we were watching it, there's something about indie movies from the like, early 2000s that just have like a specific vibe. Like, you can always tell like, this is an indie movie from that time period. It's kinda it's obviously lower budget, although it is very beautifully made. But like the like even like the way that it's cut the way the lights are, it's just got this very like rooted in realism sort of vibe to it, nothing is pretty, like everything is very stripped down. I and I think especially because we're used to seeing a lot of ya content that's very curated now like on Netflix and in movies. It's really interesting to go back to this version of high school and this version of like, what the world was like as a teenager because the high school super ugly, like nobody cares about like each other right? Like it's it's very cliquish in some ways. Michelle Rodriguez, his character is very, she doesn't really fit into a lot of gender stereotypes. Like she's very. I'm trying to figure out ways not to say the word Butch. But she's, she's very, like, muscular, and she's tall, and she wears her hair and hair in braids, but she wears very, like masculine clothing. And you know, there's definitely a very, like, a lot of tension between her and the other girls at the school who are a lot more feminine. And there's 1000s people would have been like, Oh, she's the tomboy. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And like, there's so there's a lot of that in there. But there's also a lot of those gendered expectations from her family, like her father pays for her brother to get boxing lessons. Her brother doesn't care about boxing, her brother just wants to learn how to draw, but she cares about it. And she wants to learn how to do it. And so there's a lot of that kind of interrogating why certain sports are so gendered. Why do they have to be that way? It's just very interesting. But that is sort of the general vibe of this movie is if you're thinking about, like the way indie films were made in the 2000s. This fits right into that that decade. Sam 32:51 Yeah, it's definitely indie movie bingo from the early 2000s. You'd have multiple scenes of conversations occurring at the dinner table. You have the emotional scene out on the curb or the bench with the diegetic. Outside traffic noise. You have, the soundtrack has to have some sort of diegetic Lee adjacent like percussive thing that repeats throughout the soundtrack. Does she go to a house party? In my head? There's a house? Yes. Because there is the sex scene has to occur in a sparsely decorated bedroom with a bed where the fitted sheet is not over all four corners of the bed. I mean, there are certain rules of these movies. And and this this is like a you could just do the checklist. But we're not talking about indie movies. We're talking about boxing movies. How does this stack up to other boxy movies? Rocky Tessa 33:58 Well, it's funny that you mentioned rocky because koosman obviously really loves rocky like that is that is definitely in the DNA of this film, even though it is about a teenage girl. And even though Michelle Rodriguez takes this character and really just runs with it, like she is perfect in this role. She's so like, she manages to be this tough girl while showing so much vulnerability and emotion like over everything that happens in this film. And I just I don't know many actresses who can pull off both like the fact that she can be just like Stone Cold all the time. But when something happens, you can see it in her eyes like it does still affect her and she does still have to like, you know, fight through it. And I think that's great. But there's a lot of similarities between this idea of like she's lower class and like people have all these expectations out of her that she doesn't really meet. Rocky is lower class and there's all these expectations over him that you know, he doesn't meet Rockies into a girl named Adrian. She's into a boy named Adrian like there's like all of these like Little on the nose. But but it's but I think that's on purpose, I think is is to say like no like we could write these stories about girls too. We can write these stories about women and it actually doesn't really change the way that the story hits, which I think works well. Have you seen Million Dollar Baby which comes out after this? I haven't. Okay, but I have heard that a lot of films like that are due to the success of this film. Unknown Speaker 35:28 I will it sounds very Million Dollar Baby ish. Tessa 35:32 Yeah. And apparently a lot of women were inspired to go into boxing because of this particular film as well. But it hits all of those boxing film beats, right like her first bite, she you know, doesn't do as well. Right. And there's that there's a montage which I have to ask because Sam is the expert on montage. But specifically rocky montage is is it actually a first question, is it actually a boxing film? If there isn't a montage? And second question, Where would you rate this montage? In terms of Rocky montage is Sam 36:08 well, first of all, it's not a boxing movie. It's not even a sports movie. If it doesn't have a mon training montage, that's it. You have to have the getting better montage it just has to happen or it's not a real boxing movie or sports movie now. Comparing it to the to the rocky montage is Okay, so let's, let's see. You have rocky one, which is the classic. Fighting harder getting stronger. The steps in Philadelphia. That is the montage to end our montage is right. genre, right. And in Rocky three, you have the you know training on the beach with Apollo Creed because the best friends now montage. And then in Rocky four, you have the I'm in Russia, and it's Siberia and it's cold. And I'm doing like Russian peasant training. This is none of those things. So like, you know, man, Unknown Speaker 37:18 I like creed too. It's desert training montage. creed is a better movie to me but creed two great training montage. He's like flipping tires. It's classic. Tessa 37:31 I also Yeah, I really so most of the again this is a lower budget but so most of the the training montage isn't such happen in this like one set like in the boxing gym. But I really enjoyed that boxing gym like it's a it's a gym that I believe exists. In some city. They don't specify what city they're in. But I believe that gym exists somewhere like I have seen this gym where like every it's sort of like the local hangout for a lot of men, right? Like they don't box but they hang out there. And so they're it's just a really interesting, very lived in film, in a lot of ways. Sam 38:07 All right, given that this movie is extremely hard to locate online, for some reason, should people make the effort? Tessa 38:15 Yes, absolutely. If you like Michelle Rodriguez or you like Rocky, or you like creed or any other boxing movie, you should check out this film. It is quite excellent. I enjoyed every moment of it. Go watch it. Unknown Speaker 38:28 I haven't seen it. But I like Karen Kusama, the director, I like Jennifer's body obviously. And I don't know if I have you guys seen destroyer came out a few years ago. Nicole Kidman really aggressive, tired looking age makeup, but Tessa 38:48 I mean I really loved this movie. I loved how well it was directed because I've been asking about Vin Diesel. I can't go by without saying that Michelle Rodriguez girl fight exists so Letty Ortiz can exist. If you think about her arc and the way that she comes back in the sixth movie, there is a scene that could be straight out of girl fight in the sixth movie, this scene where she fights with Gina Carano on the on the train stairs on the metro stairs and like there's the there's the scene where she like because Gina Chronos character tries to handcuff her and she like flips the hand because this is fast and furious right? Everything's gonna be cool. She like flips the handcuffs and like uses them as like brass knuckles like a handcuff knuckles is that that sounds dope. Yeah, like this. I don't want to watch it. Like the scene where she just like she like is ready to go. That scene from Fast and Furious exists because of girl fight. I'm just I'm gonna make that direct connection. Like girl fight could be an alternate version of ledi where like Dom was like away for a while or something like I could see it my head cannon exists. Sam 39:53 All right, so I guess we decided we didn't have much of an arc to this episode. pitchblack is good. Last Witch Hunter Is is not. And girl fight was really good. Well f nine be one of those things probably find out for yourself in three days. Meanwhile, next week we'll be talking about the Simpsons from a certain point of view. And one of the great Robin Williams Bilmes. In the meantime, Megan, where can people find you online? Unknown Speaker 40:24 can find me everywhere online at spell Megan SP e Ll me j i know h on Twitter, letterbox everywhere. I'm around, very easy to find out my Tessa 40:37 Tessa you can find me on Twitter and letterbox at suela Tessa Swehla is spelled SW e HLA. Sam 40:44 Find me on twitter at Sam underscore Morris nine send us your thoughts about the monkeys we talked about today. What pop culture you've crossed off your list lately, what you'd like for us to 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 my backlog@gmail.com our theme song is hot shot by Scott Holmes it can be found on Scott Holmes music calm please rate review and subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon podcast, Google podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Get that monkey off your back Transcribed by https://otter.ai