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. Coby Waddell have never made varsity four nations report. And Martha and Kobe grew up. I forgot to check with you beforehand. Is that all the right names? Today? We're talking about the film that started at all 2001 step Fast and Furious. But first, since the Gregorian calendar insists that the holiday season is upon us. Let's talk about holiday spirit. Colby, how are you getting into the holiday spirit? Unknown Speaker 0:56 I am getting into the holiday spirit by watching every family Christmas movie from the year 2000 to 2009. It's been a really fun project. Wow. Yeah, Tessa 1:09 like every one on a certain network or just like all of them. Unknown Speaker 1:14 I am tracking them down theatrical release, not TV movies, theatrically release movies, I had to give myself some parameters. But that's what I'm up to. Sam 1:21 Do you have a list? Or did you just start chronologically? Or were both the guests or what are we doing here? Unknown Speaker 1:29 So I made for once in my life, I made a list of movies to watch. Hurray, we did it out of necessity, it will never happen again. And the parameters I gave myself was 2000 2009 theatrical release. I started at pG 13. But Dana, I realized that like, is eight Crazy Nights really a family movie? Is the family man starring Nick Cage, a family movie. Sam 1:56 So as we all know, if it's animated, it's family friendly. That is a fact. Unknown Speaker 2:02 Right? If it's if it's a cartoon is for children. Sam 2:06 Now I'm going to have to say a hard no on the family man, though. Hard no on that one. Unknown Speaker 2:11 But there are 11 movies that I identified and we have watched eight of them so far. And also Santa Claus one because Santa Claus one did not come out in the 2000s. But if we're going to watch two and three, you got to watch the first one. Sam 2:27 So you mentioned eight Crazy Nights, the Santa Claus sequels, and the family man, what else is on the list? Unknown Speaker 2:34 So family man and eight Crazy Nights unfortunately did not make the cut. I don't have it in front of me. But there was How the Grinch Stole Christmas 2000 with Jim Carrey also Jim Carrey in A Christmas Carol 2009 of his deck the halls Christmas with the kranks, which is my dish might be the worst movie I've ever seen in my life. There was the perfect holiday, which I had never heard of, and was bad to find. Amongst others. Oh, Polar Express, of course, the one that everyone loves elf, Tessa 3:09 the uncanny valley Express. Unknown Speaker 3:13 I have. Unknown Speaker 3:14 Where do you stand on Polar Express. Some people love that movie. And some people love to hate on that movie. So I have a history with Polar Express. Unknown Speaker 3:22 I saw it when I was a kid, I think came out like 2004. So I was eight years old. The next year, my fancy elementary school, went on a field trip to North Carolina Museum of Natural Science and rally and they have one of those gigantic like ceiling covering IMAX screens. So I got to see Polar Express and IMAX 3d taking up the entire room, which is really cool. So it's always kind of held that sort of spot in my heart Even though the dead eyes of the children. The movie kind of got to me this time. Sam 4:00 By the way, I think that and I'm not gonna say that Tessa has or hasn't listened to the to the episode of your great podcast, Martha and Colby grow up that I was on. However, I would like to say to you that on every podcast we ever do together, you and I, which I hope is many, many more. You have to mention your fancy elementary school. Unknown Speaker 4:27 It was a good experience. But literally yet every single time we've taught the first time I was on this podcast, we talked about how I learned Japanese in elementary school. It was a good Elementary School. support public. go public. Unknown Speaker 4:41 We do. Unknown Speaker 4:43 Oh yeah. And elf is overrated as well. The last thing I'll say, okay, Unknown Speaker 4:48 controversial opinion, Unknown Speaker 4:49 is it? Unknown Speaker 4:50 Yes, Sam 4:51 it isn't. Unknown Speaker 4:51 It's overrated because everyone says it's the best Christmas movie and it's not. If they would have just said it's a pretty good clip. This movie then sure it will be appropriately rated. And see that's the that's the thing. I think that's the weird take, you know, everybody Sam 5:07 says Oh, it's the best or no it's not but nobody just says you know, it's alright. Yeah, it's Unknown Speaker 5:12 not because unaccompanied minors is better Sam 5:15 okay so so here's the here it is then here's what we need top three Christmas movies of all time of all Unknown Speaker 5:22 time Okay, Sam 5:24 who with a possible with a possible follow up question Unknown Speaker 5:27 on a company minors is up there. Can Sam 5:30 I expand it to TV movies? Well, I mean, Christmas is in your heart just like it is our so Unknown Speaker 5:36 all right. unaccompanied minors. Um, I'll leave the other reindeer. And let's say she, Sam. Unknown Speaker 5:44 Oh, I hadn't thought of that as a Christmas movie. Sam 5:48 Okay, so here's your follow up question. Is diehard a Christmas movie? Unknown Speaker 5:52 I have never seen Die Hard. Tessa 5:58 Are you gonna go and find your copy of Die Hard to show him? I guess I'll show you how to find a copy of the mixtape last time. Unknown Speaker 6:05 I guess we'll sit here and watch Die Hard. I'm so sorry. Tessa 6:14 No, I feel like we always like we have this conversation every year. And I know the internet loves to like, go back and forth on whether diehard is a Christmas movie or not. It does take place at Christmas. I think the only the only argument that I've heard that is semi valid about it not being a Christmas movie was a bartender we had once told we asked him this question. And he said that Christmas is not important to the plot of the movie, like the movie could have happened at Easter and it still would have made sense. So that's why he said it wasn't a Christmas movie. Unknown Speaker 6:49 Didn't it also come out in the middle of July? Yes. Now here's the thing about that. Christmas is actually central to the plot of the movie. Because and this is not a spoiler This is like first five minute acts you can spoil diehard for me. I don't think I know the Hans Gruber you know Snape is in the tower. He always is Sam 7:09 they are they they have planned specifically because there's a holiday party. There is no such thing as an Easter office party. That's just not something that's gonna happen in LA at nakatomi Tower. Now, the bartender in question also graduated from the University of Florida so completely invalid points there. Yeah, that's right. I don't know what to tell you Go Gators. Tessa 7:32 Sam, we're gonna do something now that we like to do here at monkey off my backlog. And that is to have a podcast within a podcast. Sam 7:41 Here we go. Tessa 7:41 I feel like there should be like a jingle here like little jingle bells or something. Welcome to this edition of the very first edition of Sam's holiday cocktail. Sam, what holiday cocktail? Are you drinking for this episode of the nine days of the Fast and Furious. And how do you make it? Sam 8:01 Because podcasting is a visual medium. I'm gonna hold up the drink that I'm drinking right now. You could hear some ice clinking then I don't know. I started off Christmas with what I think makes sense to me. Which is a Halloween cocktail. Unknown Speaker 8:16 Very good. Sam 8:17 It is called. Yes. So I'm building Christmas cheer by doing that Nightmare Before Christmas thing. Is it Christmas? Is it Halloween, I don't know. The name of this drink is the skeleton key. And so here's what you do. All you need is a glass and all the ingredients and a big cube of ice and something to stir it all with. What you do is you put well if you're me, you put two ounces of bourbon in first, and then you add a half ounce of lemon juice. And then you take something between three fourths of an ounce and an ounce of elderflower liqueur and put that in there. And then you add about six ounces of ginger beer. Now we are not being paid by Lieber syrups out of Texas, but we should be because I don't use ginger beer. I use their fiery ginger syrup, and soda water. So you put all that in, you mix it up, you put some ice on top, and then you put eight or more if you're me and always add more to things, at least eight dashes of bitters on top, which is way more bitters than you should ever put it in a drink. But the base of the drink itself goes sweet. So when you add the bitter to it, it just comes out really, really refreshing. And this has nothing to do with Christmas. But make a glass put it together and put on Nightmare Before Christmas. And argue once again. Is this a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie? Tessa 9:42 This has been an episode of Sam's holiday cocktail, Unknown Speaker 9:46 five stars. Tessa 9:50 The podcast it's over. That's it. That's all we actually wanted. All right. Good Sam 9:54 times. Thanks for joining. Unknown Speaker 9:55 All right. I'll see y'all later. All right. Tessa 9:59 All right. See Tell us a little bit about the series and why you're doing this pod and some background on the franchise. Sam 10:08 Okay, one day, back in the days before everything was streaming, whatever year that was. Back in the days of digital cable when you had like 27 off brand movie channels up there in that tier, I turned the channels one day looking for something. And I saw a movie that caught my eye. And I just kept watching. And I was so invested in it, that the next time it came on, I made a point to watch it from the beginning, the movie I'm talking about is fast and furious, Tokyo Drift, which is of course, the third in the franchise. And we'll be talking about that in a couple of days. I thought it was much better than it had any right to be. And because I have list making and completionist tendencies as we've established on this podcast, I went back and started watching the movies, the Fast and Furious franchise all the way up to I think number six, maybe, definitely number five, maybe number six, I'm not gonna say they run together in the middle point of the series. But so I've always meant to get back and watch more of the series. But I've been teasing Tessa, since we met off and on about having never seen any of these movies. Which the secret of these movies are, they're better than they should be. That's that's my hot take on the Fast and Furious franchise. It should not be good. It should be a dumb action movie franchise, which it is. But it is a good action movie franchise. And we've spent more time watching more movies and doing more like extended watches than anything else. This year. It's been the thing that's helped us get through 2020. So all of this is coming together to say what better way to finish out 2020 than to watch all of these movies. And as we've talked about a monkey off my backlog multiple times. If you don't record the conversation for a podcast, did it ever happen? Tessa 12:04 Oh, right. Yeah. And I have never seen a fast or furious I Colby Have you seen any of these films either? Unknown Speaker 12:11 No, for I haven't. Until now. To me, they always seemed vagrant in the same categories mission impossible for me. And I was like, I could go my whole life and never watching Mission Impossible. And then I was compelled to watch one. And then I watched another and another and another. Now I was like, You know what? Maybe I prejudged these movies. Maybe I need to not do that. So I swear when Tessa said, Hey, Colby, you wonder why you want to do this podcast. I can never see it. Let's watch fast, furious. So that's where I am. Tessa 12:50 Gave you gave it a chance. I have had the weird position of being aware of this franchise. But the more movies that have come out, the more I felt like it was impossible to start it. So I just I feel like every year I see a trailer for another Fast and Furious movie, and they get progressively more certainty. Like I'm just like, wait, what just happened? What? So like, I've had this experience of trying to follow this series by just watching the trailers, whatever, like they come out in the movie theater. So it's been interesting to go back to the beginning and kind of see where the roots are. But I decided that I really wanted to watch them because they did like Sam said they did seem like a good cap off to this year. But also I think when you get to nine movies, you kind of become culturally relevant whether it's a good series or not. So I'm very curious to see how the series developed into what it is now. Sam 13:46 You hear that George Lucas when you make it to nine movies, you're culturally relevant whether you should be or not. By the way, I think this is a great place to plug what will come after the 90 days of Fast and Furious which is the stupid long movie marathon stupid 90s action movie edition where we will be watching the first mission impossible The only one Unknown Speaker 14:13 I haven't seen Sam 14:15 so yeah. You got you got you got Mission Impossible. You got diehard three, so you could watch the original, and then you're ready to jump in with the adventures of Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson arguing and running through New York. You don't have to watch number two to play. We'll also going to be watching Point Break, which we'll talk about in a minute is one of the Geneses Unknown Speaker 14:41 intercede. Sam 14:43 I like Geneses better I like knowing that that's the plural whether it is or not I made it up of the Fast and the Furious. We will also be watching the Nicolas Cage holy trinity of 90s action movies, the rock Con Air and base off Before I hand it over to you, Tessa to talk about this first film, and what you both thought about this. Let me give you a little, a little information. Some stuff about the series. So fast and furious at this point, feature film alone. Box Office feature film alone is a $6 billion franchise when you add web short video games, all the other stuff to it. It's more is Universal Studios number one cash cow, which is one of the reasons why they have held fast and furiously to waiting to release f nine until 2021. But when they do, that franchise will be 20 years old, with at least two more mothership movies and endless spin offs coming after the franchise started as a street racing undercover cop drama, but at some point segwayed into high end spies and maybe just maybe they'll be going to space one day. This franchise Features Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Tyrese Gibson, ludicrous. Michelle Rodriguez jordanna Brewster, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Kurt Russell, Charlie's Theron, galka, dot, and many, many others. Some of the directors of the Fast and Furious franchise, john Singleton, Director of boys in the hood, four brothers, and before he died, the FX drama snowfall. We also have an entry directed by James Wan, who you might know is the director of that little indie feature Aqua man. another installment was also directed by F Gary Gray, who directed Friday and straight out of Compton. But long before he directed straight out of Compton, he actually directed music videos such as it was a good day, Miss Jackson and waterfalls. But the person you probably know of who's done the most Fast and Furious movies is Justin Lin, who's directed the majority of the installments and also the final we think Chris Pine, Star Trek, reboot the JJ Abrams universe. So there's some serious serious star credentials behind this series, both behind the camera and in front of the camera. And I'm done. That's all the good stuff to tell you. All that's left to do is actually talk about this movie. Tessa, tell us about this movie. Tessa 17:43 Here's my quick my quick summary of the movie and and just to remind everyone who's listening to this podcast, unlike monkey off by backlog where we try to keep spoiler free. The past nine days of Fast and Furious is what I would like to call a spoiler filled, we are going to talk about the entirety of each of these films. We will not be shying away from any spoilers, we want to be able to break them down as much as possible. as Sam said, the first film which was released in 2001, is almost 20 years old. So if you're like me, and somehow you've avoided seeing them and not being spoiled by them, cool. If not, you may want to see it before listening to the rest of this podcast. Anyway, here's my summary. So the first film, like I said, 2001 it is entitled The Fast and the Furious, which is where the franchise gets its name. It follows undercover cop Brian O'Connor, as he infiltrates the drag racing scene in LA to discover the perpetrators behind a string of truck robberies involving some pretty complex Honda Civic driving. Over the course of the film, he becomes enmeshed and enamored of a racing crew led by the charismatic Dominic toretto forcing him to choose between finding the criminals and protecting the crew Nay, the family. Wink wink that has taken him in. There are cars, there are guns. There are coronas. There is early 2000 new metal and techno there are bare midriffs and platforms and pretty much anything you could imagine in an early 2000s movie about drag racing, anything you could possibly imagine it is in this movie. So I think there's a lot we could dig into here. But first, Colby, what was sort of your reaction? Did you know anything about this movie going into it? Or did you go in completely cold? Unknown Speaker 19:30 completely cold? I know nothing about the Fast and Furious franchise whatsoever, except I don't know what any of them are called because they all have the same name. First, my first impression of this of this movie was over everywhere. They're ruined movies for about three years. And let me tell you why. So the Coen Brothers figured out hey, we can make this movie yellow and every movie For the next three years was yellow. It drives me wild this yellow film over the movie is so distracting is aggressively early 2000s. But that's my first impression. Um, did I like the movie? Sam 20:19 Yes, Colby. I gotta tell you, you know what's really funny about that? So they did the tinting with a rip, Brother, Where Art Thou their next movie? The man who wasn't there? black and white. Unknown Speaker 20:32 It was just a phase is a phase of the Coen brothers. Well, yeah. Did I love this movie? No. Did I like this movie? No. Unknown Speaker 20:45 Oh, Unknown Speaker 20:46 you're honest about it? What what stuck out to you about the movie? What was what was the problem for you when while watching this might be my expectations. But so let's go back to the mission impossible thing. Unknown Speaker 20:59 I for whatever reason started with the second one, the john woo directed one, which also isn't a good movie. But it's fun. It's really fun. There doves flying and people jumping out of Windows. And yeah, I was expecting more of that. And I feel like the times between the times where daring cars when it's just people in rooms talking, it wasn't building the path most needed for me to care about any of these people. So I was just waiting for it to get back to the fast cars because at least that looks cool. And I feel like a super Mihai saying give me more car driving fast. But I wanted more more fast and more furious. Sam 21:50 So here's the question though, right so we we have civics, we have mitsubishis we have Subaru. We have Unknown Speaker 21:55 my guys Jetta Sam 21:56 cookies. When you see Toronto's garage door open and he shows you that American Muscle. The question is, do you know that that's a Dodge Charger? No, I don't mean either. Tessa 22:11 I thought it was an Impala. Like it looks like the it looked like the car from supernatural to me, like a like a pimped out version of the car from supernatural. Unknown Speaker 22:19 I do appreciate that. You don't need to know a thing about cars. Like get the cars, you know. Tessa 22:27 Yeah, I feel like that's there's gonna be a lot of that on this particular series of podcasts where I'm trying to like describe the car and I'm just not gonna be able to describe it very well, because I don't know anything about cars. But I still felt like I was able to appreciate this. But I do wonder if there's a bit of an expectation problem for anyone who's going to this series now because, you know, even if you don't know anything about this franchise, like the the image that always sticks out in my mind is like that. I don't even know what movie it is. I'm gonna like scream during the episode where we get to this movie. But like, there's a scene from one of the trailers were like a car, like jumps from one building into another building. And like, I think it's very strange that that scene eventually happens in a movie that is somehow part of the same series as this movie. Like this movie is very pared down like it is it is a car racing movie. And there's a lot of adrenaline, but it's not that level of adrenaline. It's not like you said it's not Mission Impossible. It's not. It's not there yet. It hasn't become that. Also for me. This movie is camp like it is absolute total camp. Unknown Speaker 23:37 Is it camp? I don't think it's camp. Tessa 23:41 It's so hyper masculine that it becomes like the male gaze in this film is so intense, that it's kind of curls back in on itself. Like, in some ways, like, all of these dudes are just so like, they're all very styled and like they're all very into the cars and the cars are fetishized almost as much as the women are and the women are all like very like objectified. There's only two named female characters, I think in the entire film. And I don't even think Michelle Rodriguez his character has a last name. I think her name is just Leddy in this film. For me, it just it felt like performance. Like there was a lot of just like kind of like it becomes almost that sort of performative drag in a lot of ways, at least for me. Unknown Speaker 24:28 I feel like we talked about uncanny valley earlier I feel like it didn't for me it didn't quite get to the other side. It's not Transformers were Bumblebee is P and gone. JOHN Titor the first Transformers movie it doesn't quite get to that level. So it just I see what you mean. I just I don't think it gets all the way into camp for me. Sam 24:53 2001 was not a camp time. I mean, you know the thing about when you talk about camp is Is it made with the intention of campiness? Or does it develop campiness after the fact? and developing campiness? Maybe what this has done? But you know, Colby, you talked about how Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou ruin the movies for a few years? I mean, you could probably go a little bit farther with that and say that Oh, brother word that was like a prime example of the movies that were being made that you can talk about. You can talk about anything that was made in 99, American Beauty Magnolia, you can move up to a brother Where Art Thou, you can even talk about the biggest superhero movie of 2001. Spider Man, you can talk about the matrix, and it's unfortunate sequels. There is earnestness. Everybody's trying to do everything 100 100,000 million percent seriously. And now I think that comes across this camp, you know, like you said, it curled back into itself. Tessa 25:50 Yeah, I think maybe the other thing is that all of these male cat characters have like this, like great chemistry together like Paul Walker and Vin Diesel have, they're just, they're OTP. Right? Like, I mean, I know what happens to Paul Walker, but like that, that seems to me to be this thing, where they're like, they have this great chemistry that revolves around cars that revolves around, you know, this chosen family vibe, which we can talk about a little bit. And to me, that combined with the ultra masculinity of this film just kind of lends itself to a little bit of that flavor. And like you said, Sam, maybe it's after the fact. What did you think of the performances kolby within diesel and Paul Walker and Michelle Rodriguez jordanna Brewster Ja Rule Unknown Speaker 26:37 Ja Rule. Unknown Speaker 26:40 I did appreciate your rule or as I call him, slow DMX. But I the performances are I find too good. I think that Vin Diesel is good in this. I feel like the men, the women in this movie, besides your Danbury story, she gets some stuff to do. Michelle Rodriguez is really just there to just touch Vin Diesel every now and then. And from how I hear people talk about her in the later movies. I imagine she gets a lot more to do, but the performances for the most part are good. Find a good I give him a B. Tessa 27:29 It's interesting to me that then diesel Vin Diesel's career has been so interesting, because he has this ability. He has this ability to take what should really be bad movies and they're still bad movies, but he makes them like watchable because he's just has this. I don't know, maybe it's earnestness. Maybe it's just like this personality, but he's got a lot of charisma for someone who can only act one way. I don't know if it's just like this frequency that he operates at. But he turns a lot of these movies into into things that are very interesting. But I agree with you about Michelle Rodriguez. I'm excited to see her develop a little bit more. I don't know if I completely buy the chemistry between Brian that's his name. I keep thinking of him as Paul ron paul walker, but Brian and giordana Brewster's character who's named now I can't remember, but I just I don't know. It seemed kind of contrived to me again, like maybe we'll see it develop, but it just seemed kind of perfunctory like oh, well, we need him to be in love with Dom's sister so we'll just have that happen. Sam 28:38 This movie gets its DNA. First and foremost from Point Break. This is the undercover cop gets in too deep into the sport of the of the crime people and and falls in love in a very manly way. With the the leader of the the whole enterprise. This is Point Break. Being part of the undercover cop sporting genre. We have to talk about the fact that Brian, at the end of the movie chooses to walk away from being a cop by letting Dom drive away in Brian's own car. How do we feel about that? Unknown Speaker 29:21 I mean, in quote, unquote, these uncertain times. I feel like there's been a lot said about kapa ganda, especially since late May June. I honestly was not expecting one. I wasn't expecting the movie to end right there, too. I wasn't expecting Brian dexis name I was also about to say, Paul. I wasn't I didn't see that coming from. I feel like this movie kind of has. It's not the same movie as bad boys for like the air of bad boy. So I was thinking it was gonna go in that direction and then It just doesn't and that was honestly surprising for me. Tessa 30:03 Do you think part of it's because DOM is more compelling than the, the is the agent the FBI agent the trying to remember his name? Unknown Speaker 30:13 Oh, Ted Levine. Unknown Speaker 30:14 Yeah. Ted Levine's care agent Filkins. Sam 30:17 That's his name Captain Leland Stottlemyre of the San Francisco PD monk's employer, also known as Buffalo Bill. From The Silence of the Lambs. Same guy Enjoy your nightmares, guys. Tessa 30:31 Yeah, I mean, I just I feel like the cops are all like they're clearly even though, even though Brian, I don't know why I keep blanking on his name. Even though Brian is a cop at the beginning of the movie, he just seems way more invested in these this family that that sort of exists around Dominic. He doesn't seem like he communicates well with the other cops who all just seem very bland and kind of boring. We don't get to see any investment in himself. Like, he never talks about like, Oh, well, I believe I believe in justice. And that's why I'm a cop. You know, like, usually in a cop film, you get some kind of like, my father was killed or you know, something that like makes him more of a cop, but he just kind of almost seems like a cop out of defaults. Like, there's just because of the story. There's no internal motivation for him to continue to be a cop at all. Also, can we talk about the fact that he is given like an $80,000 car in order to go undercover to bust this ring of crap? Like I felt a little offended like that's my tax dollars man. Like why are we Why are we giving them that's $1 cars to bust a group of criminals who are stealing TVC overinflated budget up to LAPD? Sam 31:50 Yeah, yeah. Brian is like the most boring person ever he's like the most and and to underscore the thing about what we were saying about the early 2000s those frosted tips that they thought that look cool. Unknown Speaker 32:07 I just got here Tessa 32:13 at the very beginning, where he he cuz he keeps showing up at the diner, I guess we're giordana brewsters characters like working and the the they're like part of the crew is like watching him walk away. And they're like that hair though. Like that's pretty great. Like, like there's this like whole scene where like the crew is like talking about him like as he's walking away that I think is great. I think there's some good scenes in this film. I also think if we're going to talk about Keanu Reeves movies speed has to be mentioned. Sure. Any film that involves someone jumping out of a car onto a truck, which happens at one point a couple of times, actually, like you have to talk about Keanu Reeves jumping from a car onto a bus. Sam 32:53 Well, to your point. If you think about speed, we get the backstory of Dennis hoppers character. There's motivation for Keanu Reeves. Point Break, as you'll see, Keanu Reeves has some motivation. We talked about 21 bridges not too long ago. Even even Chadwick boseman his character, you know, we talked at the time about how kind of thin and overused the trope that that character is based off up, but at least there's a trope there. You know, maybe maybe we'd remember Brian, if we cared about his backstory for harbor. Unknown Speaker 33:27 I don't I don't know. Tessa 33:28 What I do know about Brian is that he has terrible taste in drinks. There is a scene where they're at a party and one of the big things in this film is Corona, right. Like they're always like, I don't care what you drink. As long as it's Corona. There's a lot of product placement. But there's a scene where they're at a party and Triana, Brewster's characters like oh, you should get me a drink and he's like, What do you want? She's like, I don't care. Surprise me. And he gets her a Snapple like, Unknown Speaker 33:53 okay, I was like, Is there some like early 2000s alcoholic drink that looks like this Snapple that Tessa 34:03 the girl asked for a drink and you got her a Snapple like there's tons of Corona there Sam 34:09 joke's on you. She likes Snapple that's how you get the girl. Tessa 34:13 Brian Bryan is possibly the most boring part of this movie. But how do we feel about the cars the racing? Does that interest anyone at this point? Or is it a pretty standard like racing film? Unknown Speaker 34:24 I mean, the obvious there's a three point from Fast and Furious two cars right? It just almost an emotional through line from then to here. I mean, honestly, I like the car scenes. I do think I hope it was intended that I was supposed to laugh at. I think his name was Jesse trying to beat this dude in his dad's Jetta. Unknown Speaker 34:53 I really laughed at that for a couple minutes. But yeah, I liked racing. I like the idea. Think this movie does action well which is why I want it more action it's mostly well I just gonna say it's mostly well shot it's not like bad Marvel movie action direction it's like it it looks good and it's that's hard to do so I was Tessa 35:15 trying to think and I'm not as familiar with like 90s car action films as well but I was trying to think of any other films that do like those interior shots where they would like go into the car to like show you like the again I don't know cars but like where they would like like right before the race or like right as they were going they would kind of like zoom into like the hood and they show you like the pistons and the engine. I feel like they've like action movie since then have emulated that quite a bit I and I kind of think it might be unique to this film I'm not sure if I've seen it before I thought that was a really interesting motif I'm I think it could probably continues in the other ones because I at least know somewhat of the style continues as well. But the action I thought the action was interesting even though like you said it's not quite as bizarre as perhaps it gets later. All right, is there anything else we want to say before we turn over to the fast facts? Unknown Speaker 36:11 Fast packs? Unknown Speaker 36:13 Do we want to talk about jar rule? Should we mentioned jar hula Sam 36:19 I think we should I think Unknown Speaker 36:20 we should. Unknown Speaker 36:22 Good lord this soundtrack. Sam 36:26 I'm still stuck on the DMX thing I'm sorry you can't I don't know what you can do after that but but tell us it. I got fixated on the new metal of the soundtrack and like the matrix, you talked about how brother Where Art Thou ruined movies, the matrix ruined movie soundtracks for like three years. But so like, I can't get past that my brain has no bandwidth for anything else after it's like a pallet. It's like your palates ruined by like, you know somebody poured like eight ounces of siracha on your first bite of food. You're ruined. That's it. Tell me what I missed. Unknown Speaker 37:01 Let me just read the names on this on this soundcheck because it makes me laugh every time I see it. We have jaw rule. Tank shout out to Chet tank haven't heard from you in a while. limp biskit DMX Method Man and Redman PD Pablo got on the soundtrack. I love every second of it. Tessa 37:28 Oh, gosh. Sam 37:28 All right. Are we ready? Are we ready for a segment that I like to call fast facts? And by the way, if you are a fast and furious superfan, you know all of this. I know Megan, fan of the podcast who will appear later this week has heard all of these facts. She knows them all. She will correct me about something. Okay. That's Fact number one. So we talked about how this movie is clearly inspired by Point Break. However, Paul Walker's inspiration for this character in this movie is Donnie Brasco, and Days of Thunder. He wanted to be in a movie where he was either an undercover cop or a racecar driver. Unknown Speaker 38:17 Talk about efficiency. Sam 38:19 Never let it be said that if you become an actor and a Hollywood people will not give you what you want. If your dreams people fastback number two, Vin Diesel was not who was intended to be Dom toretto Originally, the original Dom Timothy oliphint, friend of the podcast, Timothy Oliphant, you might know him as rayland you might know him as the best guy in the good place. But before all that he was in the 2000 film, The Nic Cage, angelina jolie, stealing cars driving them fast classic gone in 60 seconds. He did not take this movie, allegedly. So the legend goes, because it was too similar to gone in 60 seconds. And that my friends is why Vin Diesel is a household name. These are good facts you guys. Fast Fact number three, we talked about the original DOM. Let's talk about the almost me as Jessica Biel earlier when you were talking about how this franchise builds and how one is a very small movie and does other things that does doesn't quite do the things that the other one does. All I could think about is Season One of Buffy which is fitting because Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kirsten Dunst me It could have been a manic pixie dream girl. Tessa 39:37 See, I just don't I feel like this movie does not need more white people like that was what I actually thought as I was watching it. I was like, oh, Brian is almost too much white people for this movie by Unknown Speaker 39:49 himself. Is Vin Diesel supposed to be a white man in this movie? Are we to understand that Vin Diesel is white in this movie? Tessa 40:01 I didn't think that he was I just kind of thought that. I mean, I didn't think that he was I mean, I thought that the culture around him was very not white. But I guess a couple people in the crew are white Unknown Speaker 40:12 just wondering I that's something I was wondering is like it was like the he he's obviously Vin Diesel. I mean, the other like, very 2000s thing I which might kind of is just like an LA thing is like we have like the Latin car people when we have the Asian car people which is you know, also just how people tend to congregate together but it's also a very 90s 2000 sort of thing. Sam 40:43 We didn't even talk about the whole like motorcycle gang thing at the movie that's like a whole thing, Tessa 40:49 the Asian gang that have motorcycles for some reason. Sam 40:56 So okay, let me let me round out this list of almost me as Padma Amendola herself, Natalie Portman, who did not end up taking the role because she was locked in to play Padma medalla in the Star Wars prequels, because once again, if you make nine of any film franchise, you are culturally relevant. And finally, I'm going back to the Buffy well, allegedly, the role of Mia was written for Slayer. Eliza Dushku. Tessa 41:29 See she's the only one you just listed that I could actually see in the role a lot. Elijah dish. She's got the edginess for it. I don't think any of those other people you mentioned have that. Sam 41:39 The last fast fact for the day. I'm calling this fast fact lady drivers to celebrate the late great television series trial and error. Neither jordanna Brewster nor Michelle Rodriguez had driver's licenses. Now, here's the thing about Michelle Rodriguez. Right. So we talked about you guys talked earlier about Michelle Rodriguez performance in this movie and having seen more of them, I can tell you, she does grow. The past and furious was released in 2001. Michelle Rodriguez his first feature film credit, the indie movie girl fight is from 2000. She is still a relatively new feature film actor at this point, whether or not she had a learner's permit or a driver's license at this point. I don't know. But what I can tell you is four years later in 2005, while on the island in Hawaii, filming last. She was involved in a DUI, there's a whole piece of lore. Oh, no. Here we go. Sorry. podcasts within a podcast. It's time has Tessa seen lost yet. On this episode up has Tessa seen lost yet. No. This has been another episode of has Tesla seen lost yet? Yeah. So the whole thing is that there's the it's the last curse. All the people who were on last who fell foul of Hawaii PD. And Michelle Rodriguez is probably the most notorious of them. Tessa 43:31 I feel like Michelle Rodriguez has gotten a lot of she's had a kind of a bad Not a bad career because I really like her and everything that I've seen her in but I feel like she gets typecast a lot. And it's that's possibly based on this franchise, because she's just so well suited to playing action star and a lot of ways. But I I don't know. I go I just I wish she had more to do in this movie. I'm really excited to see her do more later. Sam 43:58 Are you ready for some furious stats? Unknown Speaker 44:02 Am I supposed to answer it? Sam 44:03 Here we go. Yes. Get excited. get psyched. Alright, so Unknown Speaker 44:08 is this do the psychics we're getting y'all. Sam 44:13 The budget for this film was $38 million. No surprise, the cheapest of the franchise. opening weekend drew in just over $40 million. So there you go. domestic box office opening weekend made its budget back. There's your proof of concept. Now. I know what you're thinking. It was June of 2001. What else was in the top five that weekend? Well, Fast and Furious debuted at number one. debuting at number two is the classic film, Dr. Doolittle two. So classic. coming in. Number three, the Angelina Jolie action classic Laura Croft Tomb Raider coming in at four and five are two animated classics. Atlantis, the Lost Empire and a little film. You might have heard of Shrek. Tessa 45:11 So to continue, Sam 45:13 since we're starting off with the first movie, of course, we're starting some running tallies. Hopefully you'll keep track over the next eight episodes. For today. We have the family count at two. Because remember, these movies are about family. Tessa 45:32 So family comes up twice in this movie and actually the first person to mention it is agent Belkin. Sam 45:38 The second does not come from one of the family does not come from a toretto does not come from Brian. It comes from Tran. He is reacting to the fact that the police raided his house while his family was gathered. So we obviously have not built the family trope yet. We see it, we don't hear it. It has not been beaten into our brains with a giant sledgehammer yet. Stay tuned. We're also keeping track of our Corona moments. There are two Corona moments. We have coronas at the party. After Brian gets Dom home safe and not arrested. He gets anybody's drink as long as it's a Corona. And then we have the nice picnic dinner, the family dinner where they don't actually mention family, but they have a nice family picnic dinner. And there are roads for everybody. So that's your count to family to Corona. Alright guys, like every street racing event, it's time to scatter. Join us tomorrow for the next installment of the nine days of fast and furious. We'll be talking about the most appropriately named sequel ever. Too fast, too furious. Over the next eight 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 taking 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 and email us at monkey off my backlog@gmail.com Colby, where can people find you online? Unknown Speaker 47:24 Alright, get ready so you can find me on Twitter at Colby complaints. You can find me talking about sports. I never made varsity talking about life on marfin Colby grew up talking about avatar Last Airbender on the four nations report and also writing about sports in very shortly Christmas movies on pop culture sub calm. Sam 47:44 All right. And as I mentioned, as we mentioned at the top Colby is a friend of the podcast he will be here talking about I don't know diehard something else at some point, at some point in the next several months. Unknown Speaker 47:56 I'll be back. I'll be back. Sam 47:58 Alright, Hey, have you seen the Terminator? No, we gotta we gotta work. You can find Tessa on Twitter at suela Tessa sw EHLA You can find her on letterbox at the same place. You can find me on Twitter at Sam underscore Morris nine and on letterbox to Archie Leach nine. Also, check out our regular weekly episodes a monkey off my backlog as well as our newest series, monkey nights. Our special holiday theme song is Scott Holmes his version of jingle bells and can be found on Scott Holmes music.com. Find the podcast on Spotify, Amazon podcast, iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. It's all about family. See you next time. Transcribed by https://otter.ai