Latest / Movie Meltdown / Live from Videodrome
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: Hi, this is Nick from the Found Footage Festival. You're
- 0:12Speaker 1: listening to Movie Meltdown, the meltingest podcast around.
- 0:16Speaker 2: Oh, wouldn't you be in.
- 0:20Speaker 3: Good shape if your life was on videotape? The following
- 0:32Speaker 3: feature has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association
- 0:35Speaker 3: of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental
- 0:38Speaker 3: discretion is advised.
- 0:50Speaker 2: It's showtime, folks.
- 0:52Speaker 4: Enjoy the show.
- 0:55Speaker 5: Our nuclear reactor, pumping out one million kilowatts of power.
- 1:25Speaker 2: Provide more cooling in the containment chamber.
- 1:27Speaker 4: To your stations, we have a movie meltdown.
- 1:30Speaker 2: What's that werewolf movie with E.T.
- 1:32Speaker 6: 's mom in it?
- 1:33Speaker 7: The Howling Horror, straight ahead.
- 1:35Speaker 2: Okay, thanks.
- 1:45Speaker 7: What's up, and welcome to Movie Meltdown. I am Brian,
- 1:47Speaker 7: and we're coming to you live via digital recording from
- 1:50Speaker 7: in Atlanta, Georgia. We're still on our Atlanta adventures. And
- 1:54Speaker 7: this week, I was glad to be able to put
- 1:57Speaker 7: this together. We are coming to you live in the
- 2:00Speaker 7: middle of a Videodrome video store. So, joining me, you
- 2:04Speaker 7: guys can throw yourselves out there. Introduce yourselves.
- 2:09Speaker 2: I'm Matt Booth. I'm the owner of Videodrome, the last
- 2:11Speaker 2: video store in Atlanta, Georgia.
- 2:14Speaker 8: And I'm Tommy Morgan, and I've been working here for about,
- 2:18Speaker 8: we've been open, what, 21 years now?
- 2:19Speaker 9: I've been working here about 19, so I've been here
- 2:22Speaker 9: for the long haul.
- 2:23Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a lifestyle. Once you get into it, it's, yeah.
- 2:28Speaker 2: And Tommy also worked at a different video store, Atlanta.
- 2:30Speaker 9: Yeah, I worked at a store up the street.
- 2:33Speaker 8: Movies were seen, which has since closed, but he stole
- 2:36Speaker 8: me from there, and I moved over here.
- 2:38Speaker 7: Are there still, like, harsh feelings?
- 2:40Speaker 9: No, it wasn't really like that.
- 2:42Speaker 8: I mean, I think there I was more of sort
- 2:43Speaker 8: of just a clerk, you know, just ringing people up,
- 2:45Speaker 8: putting movies up.
- 2:47Speaker 9: Here it was more of a brand new store.
- 2:49Speaker 8: We were going to build it and have a lot more...
- 2:54Speaker 8: you know a lot more impact on the actual business
- 2:56Speaker 8: yeah he's.
- 2:57Speaker 2: A decision maker over here.
- 2:58Speaker 9: And just bringing people up yeah it's a new adventure.
- 3:01Speaker 7: It's a different type of video story even and that's
- 3:04Speaker 7: the thing of this is of the sad situation that
- 3:07Speaker 7: there are so few but even even in the heyday
- 3:10Speaker 7: like even when i was when i was growing up
- 3:12Speaker 7: going to all these like you could tell which one
- 3:13Speaker 7: was like the chain and which one like you know
- 3:16Speaker 7: got in the new releases and then Even the ones
- 3:19Speaker 7: that were, like, not super independent, there'd be, like, obviously
- 3:22Speaker 7: some cleric working there that had, like, a weird, like,
- 3:24Speaker 7: I'm going to set up my cult section. I'm going
- 3:26Speaker 7: to be ordering.
- 3:27Speaker 2: I was that guy.
- 3:28Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 3:28Speaker 2: I mean, when I moved, I got out of college
- 3:31Speaker 2: and I had worked at Video Sports in high school.
- 3:32Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 3:33Speaker 2: And I was living in Atlanta. I moved to Atlanta
- 3:37Speaker 2: in 96 and didn't really have a ton of job opportunities,
- 3:41Speaker 2: you know, post-college. And I was... working with my girlfriend's
- 3:46Speaker 2: dad and helping him. He owned an apartment and I
- 3:48Speaker 2: was helping him fix things, but I just had a
- 3:49Speaker 2: lot of time, so I started working at a corporate
- 3:52Speaker 2: video store called Video Update, which was one of the chains.
- 3:54Speaker 2: I think it was in the Midwest, too. It was also.
- 3:58Speaker 7: It was called... At one time, it was.
- 4:00Speaker 2: Movies with the Cows. I don't know if you remember
- 4:02Speaker 2: that video store.
- 4:03Speaker 7: Wait, how did... It was Movies.
- 4:07Speaker 2: And they wanted you to wear cow print.
- 4:09Speaker 7: That is bad.
- 4:10Speaker 2: Cow print vests.
- 4:12Speaker 6: They had.
- 4:13Speaker 2: Everything was themed. Moo Dunnets and Moo releases. It's just
- 4:18Speaker 2: a painful pun. Yeah, but luckily I got on at movies,
- 4:23Speaker 2: but the store I worked at, they refused to wear
- 4:26Speaker 2: the vest. And then Video Update bought it almost within
- 4:29Speaker 2: a month of when I worked there. And it became
- 4:32Speaker 2: Video Update, which is I think a Minnesota-based company. And
- 4:37Speaker 2: when you work at stores like that and you get
- 4:39Speaker 2: there and you're just show up on time. They eventually,
- 4:42Speaker 2: you get promoted pretty quickly. And, um, I had some.
- 4:46Speaker 7: Always the most responsible group.
- 4:47Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 4:47Speaker 2: I had some passion for the, for the industry, but
- 4:50Speaker 2: I asked, so they moved me. I was a manager
- 4:52Speaker 2: within a couple months. And then, uh, this is pretty
- 4:56Speaker 2: much the heyday of video stores. So I was getting,
- 4:59Speaker 2: I got moved to a really big store in little
- 5:01Speaker 2: five points, which is only maybe a mile from here,
- 5:04Speaker 2: just over there. And, uh, it had a really, uh,
- 5:07Speaker 2: little five points, uh, This whole area of Atlanta that
- 5:10Speaker 2: was really eclectic at that time had a lot of people.
- 5:13Speaker 2: What's funny?
- 5:13Speaker 7: Yeah, I didn't realize how close it was when I
- 5:16Speaker 7: got here this weekend. I'm like, half the CDs I
- 5:19Speaker 7: bought in the 90s were recorded down the street. Like,
- 5:22Speaker 7: Little Five Points Pub is where they recorded all these things. Yeah,
- 5:25Speaker 7: it was sort of a cultural sentiment.
- 5:27Speaker 2: So it definitely had a different clientele for a corporate
- 5:31Speaker 2: video store. And I really felt like they weren't. they
- 5:34Speaker 2: weren't hitting the indie stuff and the foreign stuff the
- 5:36Speaker 2: way that those people really wanted it, the neighborhoods that
- 5:39Speaker 2: were adjacent to there. And I actually worked long enough
- 5:43Speaker 2: where I got to like, they let me start doing
- 5:45Speaker 2: the ordering for that store. And I increased the, I
- 5:48Speaker 2: increased the, you know, bottom line. I got bonuses and
- 5:51Speaker 2: actually did really well for like two years as a,
- 5:55Speaker 2: just a corporate video store manager and saved enough money.
- 6:00Speaker 2: And I had an employee there that was, one of
- 6:02Speaker 2: my friends who was also with a co-manager and we
- 6:05Speaker 2: came over here and opened this store just based on
- 6:09Speaker 2: what we had, you know, what, what we had gotten
- 6:10Speaker 2: done over there and brought a lot of the customers
- 6:12Speaker 2: and did it even weirder version, you know, like when
- 6:17Speaker 2: we opened, it was, um, 1998. We were all VHS. Um,
- 6:22Speaker 2: there was a blockbuster on one side of us, a
- 6:25Speaker 2: video update on the other side of us, movies we're
- 6:27Speaker 2: seeing that Tommy worked at down the street. So, um,
- 6:31Speaker 2: you know, we had five stores within, which was pretty
- 6:33Speaker 2: common back then. And there was even a more culty
- 6:36Speaker 2: video store called Blast Off in Little Five Points that
- 6:40Speaker 2: was just the weird stuff.
- 6:42Speaker 10: Like, completely.
- 6:42Speaker 7: They were so culty they took themselves out. Yeah, basically.
- 6:46Speaker 7: They were so culty. They were so weird they didn't
- 6:48Speaker 7: show up one day.
- 6:49Speaker 2: Well, you know, you didn't even know their hours. They
- 6:51Speaker 2: would just, they would just like, you would just be there.
- 6:54Speaker 2: They would be there sometimes. They wouldn't be there. They'd
- 6:56Speaker 2: be at the bar. You know, like they'd, yeah, yeah. Um,
- 7:00Speaker 2: So there were a lot of video stores just in
- 7:02Speaker 2: this area, and we were kind of... We didn't... We
- 7:07Speaker 2: really concentrated on indie, foreign... Lots of kung fu. Hong
- 7:11Speaker 2: Kong was really.
- 7:12Speaker 8: The store I worked at was an indie store, but
- 7:16Speaker 8: it was more, say, classic-based and also European-based.
- 7:21Speaker 7: Which is another sub-genre kind of market. Art House. Art
- 7:25Speaker 7: House has its own group of fans that are pretty dedicated, too.
- 7:29Speaker 9: So we were the edgier.
- 7:30Speaker 2: We did a lot of... Yeah, Italian horror was really
- 7:32Speaker 2: big at that moment when Anchor Bay was pumping out stuff.
- 7:36Speaker 2: And Dragon Con, which you're here for, was like we
- 7:39Speaker 2: would go buy all the bootlegs at Dragon Con every
- 7:42Speaker 2: year and stock up. We were kind of the edgier... If.
- 7:48Speaker 2: We didn't have Titanic. We didn't have Forrest Gump. We
- 7:50Speaker 2: didn't have.
- 7:51Speaker 7: Never mind. That's what I came here for.
- 7:53Speaker 2: But now we've moved... Now that we're the only video store...
- 7:56Speaker 2: We kind of have to have that, too. We've really
- 7:58Speaker 2: expanded our library, you know, over the last few years.
- 8:02Speaker 9: And also, you know, with DVD.
- 8:05Speaker 8: The switching from, you know, sell-through, you know, VHS to
- 8:11Speaker 8: DVD was.
- 8:11Speaker 9: The game-changer where everything was... Now everything's available on Blu-ray, too.
- 8:14Speaker 2: Now everything's just.
- 8:16Speaker 9: The floodgates have opened and it's just like, oh my God,
- 8:18Speaker 9: you can get anything you want now.
- 8:20Speaker 7: It's just, yeah, it is.
- 8:21Speaker 8: And you can't get them and they don't have it
- 8:22Speaker 8: on Amazon or Netflix or whatever.
- 8:25Speaker 7: Especially yeah especially when stuff goes out of print and
- 8:27Speaker 7: most people in the normal world don't understand out of
- 8:29Speaker 7: print like it completely like but i want it why
- 8:32Speaker 7: can't i have it especially.
- 8:33Speaker 2: Now and out of print can change in a matter
- 8:35Speaker 2: of days yeah it's like suddenly it's a hundred dollars
- 8:38Speaker 2: now it's 1999 now it's now it's like now there's
- 8:42Speaker 2: a perfect uncut print of it that's ready you know
- 8:45Speaker 2: like you can get anywhere.
- 8:46Speaker 7: It's the most desirable thing six months later you know
- 8:50Speaker 7: you might have six copies now because nobody cares anymore
- 8:53Speaker 7: But I think that is the difference once you get
- 8:56Speaker 7: from the indie video stores versus the chain. But I
- 9:01Speaker 7: think so much of it for me was also just
- 9:03Speaker 7: the people that it brought in. Because I was telling... Again,
- 9:07Speaker 7: I ran into one of our... On previous episodes, one
- 9:10Speaker 7: of our listeners, and he was asking of my weird history.
- 9:15Speaker 7: And he was talking about where I'd originally worked. And
- 9:18Speaker 7: then I had worked at a chain store. But then...
- 9:22Speaker 7: We made joke of Blockbuster, and I was like, I attempted.
- 9:26Speaker 7: There was a time when I wasn't able to work
- 9:28Speaker 7: where I wanted to, and I was like, oh, there's
- 9:30Speaker 7: a Blockbuster over here, I guess. It's still movies is
- 9:33Speaker 7: what I was thinking as a movie geek. I worked
- 9:35Speaker 7: there for one four-hour shift.
- 9:38Speaker 3: Wow.
- 9:40Speaker 7: The manager, which was the most dorky corporate manager guy
- 9:43Speaker 7: you've ever seen in his blue shirt and his khakis,
- 9:46Speaker 7: And he was just– he sat in the back room
- 9:48Speaker 7: the whole time doing whatever, books or computer. I don't
- 9:51Speaker 7: know what he was doing. He just sat back there.
- 9:53Speaker 7: But as he was explaining the rules there, it was
- 9:56Speaker 7: just product. Like it was just a rectangle. box that
- 10:00Speaker 7: I was gonna put on the wall and it did
- 10:02Speaker 7: not matter what it was he had no connection to
- 10:05Speaker 7: it like he and then my other favorite thing was
- 10:07Speaker 7: then he like left at some point and the other
- 10:09Speaker 7: girl that was there that I guess was the at
- 10:11Speaker 7: least shift manager because she was supposed to be showing
- 10:14Speaker 7: me what to do there was one spot again because
- 10:17Speaker 7: they're blockbusters so they already had video cameras and There
- 10:19Speaker 7: was one spot in the store that wasn't on camera,
- 10:23Speaker 7: and she went and stood in it and did not
- 10:25Speaker 7: move the entire rest of that four-hour shift because then
- 10:27Speaker 7: she'd have to go do something.
- 10:28Speaker 9: Wow.
- 10:29Speaker 7: So she stood there and hid from the cameras, and
- 10:32Speaker 7: we didn't talk about movies because she obviously wasn't– it
- 10:35Speaker 7: was just a job.
- 10:35Speaker 2: It was a job.
- 10:36Speaker 9: Yeah, this is a lifestyle.
- 10:37Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 10:37Speaker 7: It's a totally different thing. And that was the point
- 10:39Speaker 7: I was just like, this is why I don't– it's
- 10:42Speaker 7: sad overall that the system has changed, but I'm like,
- 10:45Speaker 7: the loss of Blockbuster– eh, you know, for geeks it
- 10:48Speaker 7: didn't matter.
- 10:49Speaker 2: It's funny there's so much nostalgia for it because I
- 10:51Speaker 2: always felt like they were just, they were always trying
- 10:53Speaker 2: to sell you something else like DirecTV or Radio Shack or.
- 10:56Speaker 7: Video Rewinder? Add-on sales.
- 10:58Speaker 2: That's what it was all about. And I never really
- 11:01Speaker 2: considered them competition because their whole model was about moving
- 11:05Speaker 2: stock prices and, you know, gaining traction. I mean, they
- 11:09Speaker 2: were doing deals with Enron at one time, remember? I
- 11:11Speaker 2: don't know if you remember. That whole, look into that.
- 11:13Speaker 2: That's like a crazy story.
- 11:14Speaker 7: That doesn't surprise me.
- 11:15Speaker 2: But like, Enron had... Claimed that they were developing the
- 11:21Speaker 2: infrastructure to stream movies, essentially. And so they went ahead
- 11:25Speaker 2: and got Blockbuster more and announced the deal. Because Enron
- 11:27Speaker 2: was just doing anything to push stock prices at one time.
- 11:31Speaker 7: It was desperate moves at that point. When they saw
- 11:34Speaker 7: the end coming, and it was pretty early on, everybody did,
- 11:37Speaker 7: because that's the only other one. And I wonder what
- 11:39Speaker 7: your feelings are on this. To me, they weren't ever
- 11:41Speaker 7: competition because it was all sales, but I also started
- 11:44Speaker 7: at Suncoast years before, which is funny. One of my
- 11:47Speaker 7: co-hosts is much younger than us, and we were reminiscing
- 11:50Speaker 7: about stories there, and she went, what's Suncoast? I'm like, Jesus,
- 11:53Speaker 7: it's not been that long, has it?
- 11:55Speaker 2: Every moment in America.
- 11:56Speaker 7: Nobody, yeah, nobody.
- 11:58Speaker 2: They had a great Kung Fu thing going on.
- 11:59Speaker 7: They had a lot of stuff.
- 12:00Speaker 2: Like, they were, that was my first, definitely, you know,
- 12:05Speaker 2: my introduction to Kung Fu movies, I think, came either
- 12:07Speaker 2: from Suncoast or like a corporate video store. And then
- 12:11Speaker 2: I went deeper and found some Asian groceries and some crazy,
- 12:14Speaker 2: you know.
- 12:15Speaker 7: But for a corporate run thing, they went, once it
- 12:18Speaker 7: went out of their hands, like the managers running it,
- 12:20Speaker 7: if you've got a good store, which yeah, ours was cool.
- 12:22Speaker 7: And like, you would get a lot of really weird
- 12:24Speaker 7: foreign movies and are again, everybody that worked there was
- 12:27Speaker 7: a horror fan. So like, that was my first introduction
- 12:30Speaker 7: to like working with a bunch of geeks. And I
- 12:32Speaker 7: was just like, this is, this is my family. Like,
- 12:34Speaker 7: these are my people. Like, so that one, being corporate
- 12:37Speaker 7: run still had that fan base of like movie fans
- 12:40Speaker 7: that like worked there and knew their clientele and talk
- 12:43Speaker 7: to them. And like people would come in looking for
- 12:45Speaker 7: recommendations and like would just blind buy it because the
- 12:49Speaker 7: guy that works over here that I talked to all
- 12:50Speaker 7: the time said it was good. And like that, I
- 12:53Speaker 7: think that kind of thing. Yeah. Is, is sort of what,
- 12:55Speaker 7: what separates like the, you know, you get to blockbuster
- 12:58Speaker 7: and they couldn't even tell you, I don't know. I
- 13:00Speaker 7: haven't watched that. Like, you know, they, so yeah, it
- 13:02Speaker 7: was such a different world looking at that.
- 13:05Speaker 2: We had some, I guess.
- 13:06Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 13:07Speaker 2: We had a chain called Turtles here, too, that had
- 13:08Speaker 2: a pretty good movie selection that was the, it was
- 13:11Speaker 2: a local record store, but, you know, that was a big,
- 13:14Speaker 2: big record store, and it was kind of a tower.
- 13:17Speaker 2: I mean, and Tower Records.
- 13:18Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 13:18Speaker 6: Tower.
- 13:18Speaker 2: Tower had great, great selection. I mean, they had, like,
- 13:21Speaker 2: massive selections of movies and good tastes.
- 13:24Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 13:24Speaker 9: And they would sell stuff. Or what was it?
- 13:26Speaker 8: What was the other video store that we bought a
- 13:28Speaker 8: ton of VHS from that? hollywood yeah stuff they were
- 13:32Speaker 8: like we don't need this.
- 13:33Speaker 2: Yeah you know that was another weird time when when
- 13:36Speaker 2: hollywood and and blacklist were trying to do deals with
- 13:40Speaker 2: ifc or with some of these like um sundance and
- 13:44Speaker 2: they would have they would have movies that we could
- 13:47Speaker 2: you know exclusive i still remember like um i was
- 13:50Speaker 2: really into like scandinavian noir and like this um icelandic
- 13:54Speaker 2: movie jar city came out and i I was desperate
- 13:57Speaker 2: to see that movie, and it was only available at Blockbuster,
- 13:59Speaker 2: which seemed like the– and I would just go there
- 14:01Speaker 2: every day waiting for it to go on sale because
- 14:04Speaker 2: I knew they didn't– and.
- 14:05Speaker 7: They're all– They're going to get rid of them, yeah.
- 14:06Speaker 7: You know, whatever, and I would.
- 14:07Speaker 6: Just– I don't know.
- 14:08Speaker 2: I mean, but we would– or Hollywood had like the
- 14:12Speaker 2: two-week– do you remember those scams like sideways renting and
- 14:16Speaker 2: stuff when– Again, they just started trying– Well, Hollywood had
- 14:20Speaker 2: like a two-week rental, but then indie video stores would
- 14:23Speaker 2: go rent the new releases from them and.
- 14:24Speaker 7: Then re-rent their copy.
- 14:27Speaker 2: We never tried anything like that. But I remember reading
- 14:29Speaker 2: about this kind of video.
- 14:29Speaker 7: Genius and underhanded.
- 14:31Speaker 2: I love this kind of indie video. Because you've got
- 14:32Speaker 2: to hustle as an indie video store.
- 14:34Speaker 7: You have to.
- 14:34Speaker 2: You've got to make every dollar counts. And if you
- 14:39Speaker 2: can take it from them, it's better.
- 14:42Speaker 7: But that was the weird of the side deals. That
- 14:44Speaker 7: was how... Cause we, we did a whole episode, like
- 14:48Speaker 7: of the, the couple of guys that I used to
- 14:50Speaker 7: work with there got together and like, we started telling
- 14:52Speaker 7: these stories and we thought we were just going to
- 14:53Speaker 7: make fun of our regulars because we had a lot
- 14:55Speaker 7: of weird regulars. And then we went into this weird
- 14:57Speaker 7: deep dive of like how they like dug their own
- 15:01Speaker 7: grave and like completely because they started like, again, the
- 15:05Speaker 7: add on sales, like they killed people with these weird
- 15:07Speaker 7: side things of like, you need blank tape. Like you'd
- 15:10Speaker 7: all these weird things that people are like, that's not
- 15:12Speaker 7: what I'm here for. Leave me alone. But then they
- 15:14Speaker 7: started making all those side deals. So they were pushing
- 15:16Speaker 7: like Dish Network.
- 15:17Speaker 2: They were pushing.
- 15:19Speaker 7: Yeah, they had all these weird little side. And the
- 15:22Speaker 7: one that killed me when I thought about it, and
- 15:23Speaker 7: that's what brought it up that last time when I
- 15:25Speaker 7: mentioned it, was we were talking about Netflix. And Suncoast
- 15:29Speaker 7: was the first place that started pushing it. They had
- 15:32Speaker 7: a display there. They had a card that they had
- 15:34Speaker 7: people sign up because nobody knew what it was. And
- 15:36Speaker 7: it seemed like this crazy idea. Why would you mail
- 15:39Speaker 7: movies to what the– it made no sense back then pre-streaming.
- 15:43Speaker 6: Right.
- 15:43Speaker 7: And, but they were the ones pushing it. And I'm
- 15:46Speaker 7: like that.
- 15:47Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 15:47Speaker 7: And I'm like, think about that in the long, you're
- 15:49Speaker 7: taking where all these people used to come in and
- 15:51Speaker 7: spend 20 or more dollars to buy a movie half
- 15:54Speaker 7: the time. Cause they weren't cheap with a lot of
- 15:56Speaker 7: their stuff, but like they were willing to buy movies
- 15:59Speaker 7: and you just hand them this way that it comes
- 16:02Speaker 7: to your house. You have to don't, you put no
- 16:04Speaker 7: effort in, it costs you next to nothing comparatively. And like,
- 16:07Speaker 7: we just handed it to them. Just like you, as
- 16:11Speaker 7: a corporation, you, You shot yourself in the foot, and
- 16:14Speaker 7: then you bled out. Because, yeah, I watched that happen
- 16:18Speaker 7: and went, this is a bad idea. And, like, within
- 16:22Speaker 7: a few years, they were gone.
- 16:23Speaker 2: I mean, how about, you know, guaranteeing Reynolds to be there?
- 16:26Speaker 2: That was another blockbuster move.
- 16:28Speaker 8: When they had, like, 800 copies.
- 16:30Speaker 7: Yeah, they would just buy a wall.
- 16:32Speaker 2: But guaranteeing that Flubber is going to be there for
- 16:35Speaker 2: you or whatever.
- 16:36Speaker 7: I can't live without my Flubber. Or, um.
- 16:39Speaker 2: Or ending late fees. Remember, what's the number one complaint?
- 16:42Speaker 2: Late fees. We're going to end them. Well, that's 30%
- 16:44Speaker 2: of your income.
- 16:45Speaker 7: I feel like that was a late, desperate move. I know,
- 16:48Speaker 7: but no late fees.
- 16:49Speaker 8: Also, late fees back then were really high. $ 1 a day,
- 16:53Speaker 8: $ 4 a day because VHS was so expensive.
- 16:55Speaker 7: And people would forget and sit in the car for
- 16:57Speaker 7: melting probably for seven, eight days.
- 17:00Speaker 6: At a time.
- 17:01Speaker 8: We got tons of melted fees. I used to repair them.
- 17:04Speaker 8: I would take them out of the shell. Get a
- 17:06Speaker 8: heat gun, take the label off. That's a whole other
- 17:09Speaker 8: world you're talking now. And then put it together and, like,
- 17:11Speaker 8: splice it and put it back in a new case.
- 17:13Speaker 6: Physically.
- 17:14Speaker 9: Because it's like, this is $ 150.
- 17:15Speaker 2: Yeah, people don't realize that either, too. Before Suncoast, I mean,
- 17:20Speaker 2: Tower of Suncoast and all these, and when Walmart started
- 17:23Speaker 2: selling VHS, I think Matrix was maybe the first VHS
- 17:25Speaker 2: I remember being, like.
- 17:26Speaker 7: $ 19.
- 17:26Speaker 6: But, like.
- 17:28Speaker 2: VHS used to cost us $ 90. I remember that. And
- 17:31Speaker 2: they were better made. They were thicker. They had screws
- 17:34Speaker 2: in them. They weren't meant to be. They were metal pieces.
- 17:38Speaker 2: They were interchangeable, actually. We used to change them out
- 17:40Speaker 2: all the time.
- 17:40Speaker 8: There were some that had a special screw that you
- 17:43Speaker 8: had to require a special screwdriver that you couldn't get
- 17:45Speaker 8: anywhere because they didn't want people taking them apart specifically
- 17:47Speaker 8: for that reason.
- 17:48Speaker 9: People were going to take them out and like, oh,
- 17:49Speaker 9: I'm going to keep this movie. And put some other
- 17:51Speaker 9: thing in. Put my home movies in there.
- 17:53Speaker 7: It does sound like stuff that movie geeks would do, yes.
- 17:56Speaker 2: But yeah, when someone breaks or loses your $ 90 thing,
- 17:59Speaker 2: it's a loss for the store. It's a huge investment
- 18:01Speaker 2: for you.
- 18:02Speaker 7: It's a small business, yeah.
- 18:03Speaker 2: We're talking, you know, these things, they rent for a
- 18:05Speaker 2: year and they make money the second year, which is,
- 18:08Speaker 2: you know, that's... Unusual.
- 18:09Speaker 7: For a business.
- 18:10Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 18:11Speaker 7: That your investment is still making you money that far
- 18:13Speaker 7: down the line.
- 18:14Speaker 2: And then suddenly they were all sell through. They were
- 18:16Speaker 2: all really cheap. We made, they were, you know, they
- 18:19Speaker 2: would snap and, and you know, they were.
- 18:22Speaker 7: Good times video.
- 18:23Speaker 2: Well, those were EP. Like that's a whole, I couldn't even,
- 18:26Speaker 2: you can't rent those, you know.
- 18:27Speaker 7: It was garbage and we sold them all day long.
- 18:30Speaker 2: Good times have made a ton of money.
- 18:32Speaker 7: 999. I'll take it. You'll be bringing it back tomorrow too.
- 18:35Speaker 6: Wow.
- 18:37Speaker 2: But, Yeah, we went through. And then you get the
- 18:41Speaker 2: change over to DVD, and then now DVD is really cheap.
- 18:44Speaker 2: We're having that problem now where DVDs are separating. There's
- 18:51Speaker 2: disc rot in a DVD, and they're separating.
- 18:54Speaker 9: You look at it, and it looks perfectly fine.
- 18:56Speaker 8: There's no scratches on it, but you put it in,
- 18:57Speaker 8: and it doesn't play because it's super cheap. But then
- 19:00Speaker 8: ones we have from 20 years ago that are totally
- 19:04Speaker 8: beat to hell, and they work fine, and it's crazy.
- 19:07Speaker 3: It's weird.
- 19:07Speaker 7: It's a couple of years before we realize Blu-rays implode. Well,
- 19:11Speaker 7: secretly planting that in.
- 19:13Speaker 8: The Blu-rays' quality is definitely better.
- 19:15Speaker 2: As of right now, they don't seem to scratch.
- 19:18Speaker 8: I also kind of think that your typical Blu-ray runner
- 19:21Speaker 8: is more cautious because they're more into the thing. I mean,
- 19:25Speaker 8: this will change over time.
- 19:28Speaker 7: Well, I don't know. I feel like that's the last
- 19:31Speaker 7: wave of... fins you know with physical media yeah it's
- 19:34Speaker 7: like i don't know what else there are we gonna
- 19:36Speaker 7: have any other physical everything's still trying to be streaming
- 19:43Speaker 7: yeah for for the geeks that want to hold a
- 19:45Speaker 7: thing in their hand and i want a booklet that
- 19:47Speaker 7: comes with it and i want to like even if
- 19:49Speaker 7: i pay a hundred 130 dollars for it i want
- 19:51Speaker 7: it to be a collectible item because that's what makes
- 19:54Speaker 7: it geek so.
- 19:55Speaker 2: Yeah blu-ray it's a really impressive product it's like they're
- 19:58Speaker 2: at we're at the i feel like we're the golden
- 20:01Speaker 2: age of blu-ray releases right now you know yeah with
- 20:03Speaker 2: like what's like the amount of films that are coming out,
- 20:07Speaker 2: all these boutique, boutique labels that are doing such a
- 20:09Speaker 2: great job. I mean, everyone knows Criterion and Arrow and
- 20:12Speaker 2: some of those, but I mean, Kino, look at what
- 20:15Speaker 2: Kino's doing.
- 20:17Speaker 7: Yes.
- 20:17Speaker 2: I mean, there's, uh, Severin's a good one. Shop factory,
- 20:23Speaker 2: screen factory doing a great job. It's like some of them,
- 20:26Speaker 2: I mean, and then there's all these boutique British labels too,
- 20:30Speaker 2: that are putting stuff out. And those are usually all
- 20:32Speaker 2: region or at least like 50% all region. I mean,
- 20:36Speaker 2: I'm our, our new release. We can't keep up with it.
- 20:39Speaker 2: It's just con it's like, and I'm watching more old
- 20:41Speaker 2: movies than ever that I haven't seen since VHS days.
- 20:46Speaker 7: That was the difference with DVD is there were so,
- 20:49Speaker 7: and geeks would always go on about that is like,
- 20:50Speaker 7: there's so many things on VHS that didn't get put
- 20:53Speaker 7: on DVD. And now we're finally, I think hitting that
- 20:56Speaker 7: point of like, okay, we put out all the basic
- 20:57Speaker 7: stuff that regular people want to buy onto Blu-ray and
- 21:01Speaker 7: What else have we got? We still have to make money.
- 21:03Speaker 7: Let's find a weird collector's version to put out.
- 21:05Speaker 8: Every week I look at the table and I'm like,
- 21:07Speaker 8: there's eight movies here that I've never heard of.
- 21:09Speaker 7: They did this?
- 21:09Speaker 9: I've actually just never even heard of the movie.
- 21:12Speaker 2: But then there's stuff like Night of the Demon that
- 21:14Speaker 2: comes out and there's four versions of a movie that
- 21:16Speaker 2: you thought you'd never see or whatever. I love when
- 21:20Speaker 2: they do that stuff. It's crazy now.
- 21:23Speaker 7: Every week.
- 21:25Speaker 2: I have trouble ordering now. It's overwhelming. like they tell
- 21:29Speaker 2: me I'm going crazy all the time. And I'm like,
- 21:32Speaker 2: I just feel like I have to get it though.
- 21:34Speaker 2: I mean, I feel, I don't know. And, and it's
- 21:38Speaker 2: really hard to tell which ones I'm going to take on.
- 21:40Speaker 8: I think it brings people in. It's bringing people in though,
- 21:42Speaker 8: more so than like you think about like the new
- 21:45Speaker 8: release wall, not being, I mean, as far as like,
- 21:49Speaker 8: you know, the big hits that.
- 21:51Speaker 2: Are coming out, like never, it really makes us look.
- 21:54Speaker 9: It's not people. I don't, I don't, it's interesting to
- 21:57Speaker 9: have people come in and be like, Oh, you, You
- 21:58Speaker 9: have Twins of Evil on Blu-ray.
- 22:00Speaker 6: I'm like, okay, great.
- 22:01Speaker 8: It might only be like two or three people, but
- 22:03Speaker 8: that's two or three people who probably wouldn't have come
- 22:05Speaker 8: here otherwise.
- 22:06Speaker 2: And even if they point at it and laugh and
- 22:08Speaker 2: get Avengers, do you know what I'm saying?
- 22:10Speaker 7: It does– It's still– it at least plants that seed
- 22:12Speaker 7: of like when they're looking for something that's maybe not
- 22:14Speaker 7: super weird, but just out of the norm that Walmart's
- 22:17Speaker 7: not going to have. They'll be like, oh, yeah, what
- 22:19Speaker 7: about that one place we went that time? And like
- 22:20Speaker 7: it gives them a place to go that you– you
- 22:23Speaker 7: have their back.
- 22:24Speaker 2: But it also freshens the story. Like when you're looking
- 22:26Speaker 2: around right now, the Blu-rays pop, you know, like compared
- 22:29Speaker 2: to this.
- 22:29Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 22:30Speaker 2: Like, cause it's newer, they just don't look 15 years old.
- 22:33Speaker 7: And especially they, they keep hiring acting like artists to
- 22:37Speaker 7: do these weird new artwork.
- 22:39Speaker 8: A lot of people who don't know what they're getting into.
- 22:41Speaker 8: I'm like, think that the, the box is reflecting what
- 22:44Speaker 8: the movie is. It's really not like that at all.
- 22:47Speaker 7: But that's an old trick anyway. I've been doing that
- 22:49Speaker 7: since one sheets that had nothing to do with the
- 22:52Speaker 7: movie you were about.
- 22:53Speaker 2: To go see. So that's a B movie thing.
- 22:55Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 22:55Speaker 7: That's like, that's an art form in and of itself.
- 22:58Speaker 7: So what has been like, I guess, you know, you've
- 23:00Speaker 7: hit some of the basics, but like what, what has
- 23:03Speaker 7: been sort of that staple that, that brings people in?
- 23:06Speaker 7: Cause I know again, working, I just kind of hit
- 23:08Speaker 7: the tail end of, of wild and wooly, but we
- 23:10Speaker 7: had like, He had built it on such specific– again,
- 23:14Speaker 7: he started in a store that was the size of
- 23:17Speaker 7: this little section. Like it was tiny.
- 23:20Speaker 6: Right.
- 23:20Speaker 7: And it was mostly martial arts stuff. It was a
- 23:23Speaker 7: lot of foreign titles that most people in the neighborhood
- 23:26Speaker 7: had never heard of. And like it kind of– yeah,
- 23:28Speaker 7: a lot of weird stuff that just sort of became
- 23:31Speaker 7: their brand. And then that became the fan base where
- 23:34Speaker 7: everybody knew that's the stuff you had. So I guess
- 23:36Speaker 7: what is kind of the stuff that's become your signature thing? sections.
- 23:40Speaker 2: I did a little research. I listened to you guys
- 23:42Speaker 2: end of the year show, the, your movie award show
- 23:44Speaker 2: from last year. And I think it's, that's really our
- 23:47Speaker 2: core best. If you, if you line up our best
- 23:50Speaker 2: runners last year, we're Mandy, we're hereditary, we're annihilation.
- 23:55Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 23:55Speaker 2: I mean, like we might skew a little more art
- 23:58Speaker 2: house and foreign than that.
- 24:00Speaker 7: Um, which we had some of that stuff come in too,
- 24:03Speaker 7: but it's.
- 24:03Speaker 2: But your winners, but your winners would be very similar.
- 24:07Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 24:07Speaker 2: Like that list of winners would be the, the best
- 24:10Speaker 2: i mean i think black clansman was a really big
- 24:12Speaker 2: hit for us that year yeah um sorry to bother
- 24:15Speaker 2: you yeah which i don't know yeah you did you
- 24:18Speaker 2: did mention that a little bit and then uh so
- 24:20Speaker 2: i mean that's really what our what our core i
- 24:23Speaker 2: mean a24 is huge for us now like i do
- 24:26Speaker 2: a studio deal with lionsgate where i can um revenue
- 24:31Speaker 2: share on those movies so i can get more copies
- 24:32Speaker 2: you know and and uh And that's... Anything A24 just, like,
- 24:37Speaker 2: jumps off the shelf for us, you know?
- 24:40Speaker 4: Possession.
- 24:41Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's another thing. It's like Possession, Paprika. There's...
- 24:47Speaker 2: Miyazaki movies. Miyazaki is... Miyazaki is.
- 24:52Speaker 7: People who come with their own fan base. Miyazaki in particular. Like,
- 24:56Speaker 7: if you're into that, you're into that. Like, there's rarely a...
- 25:00Speaker 7: Maybe the kid that grew up with my neighbor, Totoro.
- 25:02Speaker 7: But most people, it's like, if you're a fan... you're
- 25:04Speaker 7: all in. Like, so that, that helps you guys. Cause
- 25:07Speaker 7: then they're like, Oh, I need to see this one.
- 25:08Speaker 2: I need to see this one. And then directors like,
- 25:11Speaker 2: you know, David Lynch or Wes Anderson or, you know,
- 25:14Speaker 2: this kind of in Cronenberg does really well here because,
- 25:17Speaker 2: and I mean, we've kind of created our own, you know,
- 25:20Speaker 2: favorites to over the years by like, we show movies
- 25:24Speaker 2: around the corner at the Plaza theater and, um, a lot,
- 25:27Speaker 2: all those movies, people are constantly coming in for like
- 25:31Speaker 2: everything we've ever shown. Like, pretty much rents forever at
- 25:33Speaker 2: that point, too.
- 25:34Speaker 7: That's what I think is interesting, because people, again, would
- 25:37Speaker 7: tell you the opposite. It's like, once you... Well, now
- 25:39Speaker 7: they've all seen it. They're not just like, no, no, that's...
- 25:42Speaker 7: All you got to do is get it out there,
- 25:43Speaker 7: and then, like, they want to share it with their friends.
- 25:46Speaker 7: They want to watch it again. Like, it really does
- 25:49Speaker 7: nothing but fuel that fire.
- 25:50Speaker 8: I think we could play Howzoo once in a while,
- 25:52Speaker 8: and then it would still have 250 people.
- 25:54Speaker 2: Yeah, that was our... We... That's one thing, you know,
- 25:58Speaker 2: over the years, we've had some changes around here.
- 26:00Speaker 6: Maybe.
- 26:02Speaker 2: Three and a half years ago, we had a, we, we.
- 26:06Speaker 9: Uh, you know, the end was near.
- 26:08Speaker 2: So we hit, yeah.
- 26:10Speaker 7: Again, that's when Todd gave up.
- 26:12Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 26:12Speaker 2: We were a late video store. So we started at
- 26:16Speaker 2: the 2008, the downturn really started around 2006, 2007 when
- 26:20Speaker 2: they started because video stores started closing. 2008 was also
- 26:25Speaker 2: the financial crisis, which was a bad for everybody. And, um,
- 26:29Speaker 2: And especially, I mean, as you could tell, people were
- 26:31Speaker 2: really thinking about every time they spend a dollar, you know?
- 26:34Speaker 2: And so, um, I would say about three and a
- 26:38Speaker 2: half years ago, we, we really, we sat down and
- 26:40Speaker 2: we had a meeting and we said, you know, are
- 26:42Speaker 2: we going to do this? Are we going to not?
- 26:43Speaker 2: And we just, we were like, if we're going to
- 26:46Speaker 2: do this, we're going to see if we can expand
- 26:48Speaker 2: our brand outside the store. promote as much as possible.
- 26:52Speaker 7: I think that's a big part of it.
- 26:53Speaker 2: And I mean, and so we, so we went social media,
- 26:56Speaker 2: kind of crazy. We all took our own sort of
- 26:59Speaker 2: talents to different social media.
- 27:01Speaker 6: Um, thing.
- 27:02Speaker 2: We have a Twitter that's followed, you know, we, that
- 27:05Speaker 2: does pretty well. We do as much Facebook and.
- 27:07Speaker 7: Technically that's how I learned about you because I saw
- 27:10Speaker 7: someone else posted on, on Facebook. I was like, Oh,
- 27:13Speaker 7: I'm going there.
- 27:14Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 27:14Speaker 2: So Matt Owensby who works here does a really nice
- 27:17Speaker 2: job with our Twitter. And he has a lot of,
- 27:19Speaker 2: followers um and it's he's got a hilarious voice and
- 27:22Speaker 2: it works really well um and then we kind of
- 27:27Speaker 2: developed a partnership with turner at that time it was
- 27:30Speaker 2: starting a streaming service called filmstruck which we didn't see
- 27:34Speaker 2: necessarily as too much competition but when we felt like
- 27:37Speaker 2: we could that the people who liked filmstruck would want
- 27:40Speaker 2: to come in here too because they want more than
- 27:42Speaker 2: what filmstruck was because it was so curated yeah and
- 27:44Speaker 2: it had criterion stuff and it had.
- 27:46Speaker 8: Sort of similar to the idea of the people pushing
- 27:49Speaker 8: i mean pushing netflix in their own right yeah kind
- 27:52Speaker 8: of like it's sort of working but at the same
- 27:54Speaker 8: time we were introducing content on that like on a
- 27:57Speaker 8: stream so that's it's no bad publicity.
- 28:00Speaker 7: Especially those specialized ones because they really do you only
- 28:03Speaker 7: get like you know 30 movies sometimes if it's really
- 28:06Speaker 7: curated so like then it's just like okay you like
- 28:09Speaker 7: this but here's 10 other things that director did, or
- 28:12Speaker 7: here's several other things in the same genre. So like,
- 28:15Speaker 7: then this can like open the door and they can
- 28:17Speaker 7: come in here and just, it's a playground at that point.
- 28:19Speaker 2: So yeah, they, yeah, they started a show for us
- 28:22Speaker 2: called video, video drum dialogues and that we would, we'd
- 28:26Speaker 2: shoot two a month or so back to back. We'd
- 28:28Speaker 2: shoot two and it was just, they filmed us for
- 28:30Speaker 2: 30 minutes talking about a director or a, or actor
- 28:33Speaker 2: or a group of films, however they wanted to present them.
- 28:35Speaker 2: They would always have a group of 10 films coming out. And, um,
- 28:38Speaker 2: they would cut it down to like a 10 minute
- 28:40Speaker 2: segment and put it on there. And it, and it, yeah,
- 28:43Speaker 2: it was, it was good. We got paid for it
- 28:45Speaker 2: and that worked really well. And even the film sucks
- 28:47Speaker 2: out there. We're continuing our relationship with Turner and we're doing,
- 28:52Speaker 2: we're showing a movie with TCM underground, hard ticket to Hawaii,
- 28:55Speaker 2: which I don't know if you know, that was one
- 28:57Speaker 2: of the worst movies ever made, but like, it's a
- 28:59Speaker 2: sort of a B like it's like Baywatch meets a
- 29:03Speaker 2: team with a hard, hard R ratings.
- 29:06Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 29:07Speaker 2: Um, it's, it's terrible, but hilarious if no one's check
- 29:11Speaker 2: out the trailer. Um, but yeah, we're showing that this,
- 29:14Speaker 2: this Thursday and then we're all the TC underground people
- 29:17Speaker 2: are coming in here and they're filming a interview that
- 29:19Speaker 2: they're going to cut up and use for promotion during
- 29:21Speaker 2: the year that they're going to film the event too
- 29:23Speaker 2: and use that. So we did some bigger things like that.
- 29:27Speaker 2: We started our, we went over to the Plaza who
- 29:29Speaker 2: had just recently had new owners and we started a
- 29:33Speaker 2: screening series over there called plazadrome where we were showing
- 29:37Speaker 2: movie once a month and now it's kind of expanded
- 29:39Speaker 2: where we're showing two and three movies a month sometimes
- 29:41Speaker 2: now we have three movies this month.
- 29:43Speaker 8: That's been a real big i think that's been a
- 29:45Speaker 8: real big deal for us and it should have been
- 29:48Speaker 8: a thing a relationship all along you know it's an
- 29:49Speaker 8: old art house theater yeah and it's on the corner
- 29:52Speaker 8: it's got the cool neon sign.
- 29:53Speaker 7: Again that's our problem we bulldozed ours in my town.
- 29:56Speaker 8: And well it's gone through a series of owners and
- 29:58Speaker 8: nobody and it's never we've never really been a partner
- 30:00Speaker 8: with some of them.
- 30:01Speaker 2: Thought of as competition some of them yeah you know
- 30:03Speaker 2: which is now we're actually kind of ridiculous really we're
- 30:06Speaker 2: a good thing for them and they're a good thing for.
- 30:07Speaker 7: Us yeah you can only kind of help each other so.
- 30:10Speaker 2: Yeah those are really fun and we're trying to move
- 30:12Speaker 2: those into more even event style ones where we like
- 30:16Speaker 2: last year we did an art show slash movie screening
- 30:19Speaker 2: with deadly prey gallery, which I don't know, which is a,
- 30:22Speaker 2: everyone should look that up too. Like deadly prey is
- 30:25Speaker 2: like a, it's a gallery in Chicago. It's our friend Brian,
- 30:29Speaker 2: who also owns a video store in Chicago called odd
- 30:31Speaker 2: obsession video. And, um, it's, he, uh, they're hand drawn
- 30:38Speaker 2: posters from Ghana, movie posters from Ghana. And they're unbelievable.
- 30:42Speaker 7: It has become like a pastime at this point of like,
- 30:45Speaker 7: finding ones that I haven't seen before. And I'm just like,
- 30:47Speaker 7: this is insane. You wouldn't think you could even come
- 30:52Speaker 7: up with some of these things that they do. And
- 30:54Speaker 7: I'm like, I don't, where did that come from?
- 30:56Speaker 2: Like the ideas and the, well, the original ones, they
- 31:00Speaker 2: usually didn't have, they sometimes had a conversation on the
- 31:03Speaker 2: phone and then drew it like they, or they had
- 31:05Speaker 2: the title and you know, the, and the actor maybe,
- 31:08Speaker 2: but they had an idea. So they put it in
- 31:10Speaker 2: Sylvester Sloan from a different movie into that movie or,
- 31:14Speaker 2: Even selected in any other movie. And now they're more...
- 31:20Speaker 2: A lot of those guys, now that Brian's been... A
- 31:22Speaker 2: lot of those artists are back just doing posters full-time
- 31:27Speaker 2: for the first time in their life. They were painting
- 31:29Speaker 2: houses or doing all kinds of weird jobs, and now
- 31:31Speaker 2: they're full-time artists again.
- 31:32Speaker 7: It's great.
- 31:33Speaker 8: You can basically get custom whatever. I mean, Conan O'Brien
- 31:37Speaker 8: has one, like I saw.
- 31:39Speaker 2: We have one on... we commissioned one of our store
- 31:42Speaker 2: we sent a logo that's amazing that's the video drone
- 31:45Speaker 2: yeah that's actually for video drone but we had commissioned
- 31:47Speaker 2: one for like us where we sent pictures of us
- 31:49Speaker 2: but it hasn't come yet but i'm waiting you need
- 31:51Speaker 2: one of these i'm waiting for uh we're waiting for
- 31:53Speaker 2: that but it's but we're also going to do a
- 31:56Speaker 2: we're doing another that again next year but like yeah
- 31:58Speaker 2: that that event we had we had the posters up
- 32:01Speaker 2: in the lobby of the plaza for two weeks we
- 32:03Speaker 2: showed The Devil's Sword, which is a really strange Indonesian
- 32:06Speaker 2: kung fu movie, which we actually had 220 people come
- 32:10Speaker 2: see The Devil's Sword, which is, I guarantee that's like
- 32:12Speaker 2: the biggest crowd outside of Indonesia that's ever seen that movie.
- 32:15Speaker 7: We can't get anybody to do anything. Like, I've given
- 32:18Speaker 7: up trying to do live events, so that's amazing.
- 32:20Speaker 2: And super fun, showed the restoration of Escape from New
- 32:25Speaker 2: York during that week, and then capped it off with
- 32:27Speaker 2: a plaza drone where we showed Near Dark, and That
- 32:30Speaker 2: worked really well. We tried to keep the vibe with
- 32:32Speaker 2: what would have been in those posts. What those artists
- 32:36Speaker 2: would like. That was super successful. We're going to do
- 32:41Speaker 2: it again hopefully early next year.
- 32:43Speaker 7: I think that's kind of the only way anything at
- 32:46Speaker 7: this point is going to work. If you just do
- 32:50Speaker 7: the norm and just do the same thing that you
- 32:53Speaker 7: can get at home. If you can just sit at
- 32:55Speaker 7: home and stream something, why is anybody ever going to leave?
- 32:58Speaker 7: When we start making it more of social event or
- 33:01Speaker 7: we start making it more of a event where there's
- 33:03Speaker 7: like a draw where you have like oh one of
- 33:05Speaker 7: the actors came here or the director came to talk
- 33:07Speaker 7: about this terrible movie they made or like when you
- 33:09Speaker 7: add an actual like element to it that you have
- 33:12Speaker 7: to be there for it's almost the only thing that
- 33:15Speaker 7: brings people out of the house then is making it
- 33:17Speaker 7: something that's a reason to be there and to have
- 33:21Speaker 7: it be part of like the social event aspect that
- 33:24Speaker 7: you have to have.
- 33:24Speaker 9: Now I also think.
- 33:28Speaker 8: You know everybody who works here really cares about this
- 33:31Speaker 8: place yeah and that makes a huge difference in like
- 33:33Speaker 8: an attitude and as far as like helping customers and
- 33:36Speaker 8: i think customers like that that they it's.
- 33:38Speaker 7: You don't get that most places like just about every
- 33:41Speaker 7: store you go in it's just somebody like what i
- 33:43Speaker 7: don't know over there like you know i.
- 33:45Speaker 8: Mean i'm sure we give that off sometimes to some
- 33:46Speaker 8: people but you know i mean like it's still a
- 33:48Speaker 8: job i mean you say sometimes you're really gonna but
- 33:50Speaker 8: everybody here really puts a lot of effort in and
- 33:52Speaker 8: you're not getting you're not getting paid for it you
- 33:55Speaker 8: know everybody here works another job you know, it's so.
- 33:58Speaker 7: Yeah, it is.
- 33:58Speaker 2: It's a passion project. It's me full time. And then
- 34:03Speaker 2: everyone else who hasn't worked here has another job too.
- 34:06Speaker 2: You know, like, so a lot like Tommy works the
- 34:08Speaker 2: most besides me, but everyone else separate job used to
- 34:12Speaker 2: work here, works here one shift or two.
- 34:14Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 34:15Speaker 2: You know, because they want to be around here.
- 34:17Speaker 7: Yeah. I mean, that's what I, and I worked one
- 34:19Speaker 7: shift a week for a while there. And it's just like,
- 34:21Speaker 7: it's because it's, it was my home. Like it's where
- 34:23Speaker 7: I wanted to be at least once a week.
- 34:25Speaker 2: I needed to go like, And that's, and come, you know,
- 34:28Speaker 2: on the flip side, we have a really engaged customer base. Like,
- 34:31Speaker 2: and they're, it's, I mean, I don't know. I don't
- 34:34Speaker 2: ever have any of those bad stories about customers. I
- 34:36Speaker 2: can never do like, no one complains.
- 34:38Speaker 9: No, everyone, everyone's super nice.
- 34:40Speaker 2: Like they're waiting for you to help them. Like they,
- 34:42Speaker 2: they give them a break.
- 34:44Speaker 9: .
- 34:46Speaker 7: .
- 34:49Speaker 9: .
- 34:51Speaker 6: I don't know.
- 34:51Speaker 2: It's really, it's almost hard now to get my other
- 34:54Speaker 2: work done during a shift. Cause I've, I'm so personally
- 34:56Speaker 2: involved with so many customers now that I'm constantly in
- 35:00Speaker 2: this conversation about their movie choices, but also their life.
- 35:05Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 35:06Speaker 9: Like literally little kids who are like, yeah, they are
- 35:09Speaker 9: come back. They're back from college now.
- 35:11Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 35:11Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 35:11Speaker 2: So that's, and, and, I think we just try to
- 35:20Speaker 2: diversify as much as possible. We sort of... Even like
- 35:23Speaker 2: selling drinks or selling snacks or selling buttons or... We
- 35:26Speaker 2: just like.
- 35:26Speaker 7: That becomes a big help.
- 35:28Speaker 2: Because there's so many people that will just walk in
- 35:30Speaker 2: here that are like, oh, I can't believe there's a
- 35:31Speaker 2: video store. But even if they spend $ 2 on a
- 35:33Speaker 2: button or a shirt or they buy a shirt, that's great.
- 35:36Speaker 8: Or they get a sticker and they stick it on something.
- 35:40Speaker 2: I don't know how many thousands of stickers we've given
- 35:42Speaker 2: away in our time period. You know, we've had... Yeah.
- 35:45Speaker 2: But so we just... We really.
- 35:49Speaker 2: We tried to do a thing on Sundays where we
- 35:51Speaker 2: have dinner and a movie where we have to go
- 35:54Speaker 2: to Molly's or we have to go to something where
- 35:56Speaker 2: local people come in. Because Sundays were getting rough because
- 35:59Speaker 2: Game of Thrones.
- 36:02Speaker 8: TV killed Sundays. It used to be the biggest night
- 36:04Speaker 8: of the week. Now it's probably one of the slowest
- 36:06Speaker 8: nights of the week.
- 36:07Speaker 7: I mean, I think that changed things. At the time,
- 36:10Speaker 7: I think that's also kind of what saved... that concept
- 36:13Speaker 7: in the, in the beginning before it became such an
- 36:16Speaker 7: easy thing. But like, I remember the first wave of
- 36:19Speaker 7: series that start Game of Thrones being one of them
- 36:22Speaker 7: and Sopranos and like people were, it's the first time
- 36:25Speaker 7: since I was like a kid almost since like the
- 36:29Speaker 7: olden days of VHS that people were fighting over movies
- 36:32Speaker 7: coming back in. Like I remember those at the return
- 36:34Speaker 7: table and they'd put it out and people would really
- 36:37Speaker 7: almost to get to like a shoving match to get
- 36:39Speaker 7: to whatever they wanted. And it got like that with
- 36:41Speaker 7: Game of Thrones. It's like, I need season two. Where's
- 36:43Speaker 7: it at? And they would lose it. So I think
- 36:46Speaker 7: that was one of those that it was taking away,
- 36:48Speaker 7: but it was adding that fan base to it.
- 36:49Speaker 8: It takes away that night, but it brings it back
- 36:51Speaker 8: because people are like, oh, the new season's coming out.
- 36:53Speaker 2: I need to watch.
- 36:54Speaker 7: I need to burn through all of these again.
- 36:55Speaker 9: Yeah, my boyfriend hasn't watched these.
- 36:58Speaker 7: That was a weird balance because I feel like series
- 37:00Speaker 7: helped in the long run, but yeah, on the Sunday night,
- 37:03Speaker 7: it's going to take away your business.
- 37:04Speaker 2: Series are great because people repeat customers. You know what
- 37:07Speaker 2: you're going to get. It's easy. It's quick. You know, whatever.
- 37:10Speaker 2: But now that TV has gotten so streaming-oriented now that
- 37:14Speaker 2: it's hard to explain to people that, sorry, this is
- 37:18Speaker 2: on this channel, and they release them on DVD, but
- 37:22Speaker 2: this channel doesn't release them on DVD. Or even it's
- 37:25Speaker 2: on this channel, but owned by this company, so that
- 37:27Speaker 2: specific company releases them.
- 37:29Speaker 7: People don't even understand the waiting a week for a
- 37:31Speaker 7: new episode of something. It upsets them if they can't
- 37:34Speaker 7: just stream through six things in a row.
- 37:36Speaker 8: Well, that's happening a lot, too, with series. That's where
- 37:38Speaker 8: we'll buy the first season because it's so hot. And
- 37:41Speaker 8: then by the time the second season comes out, or
- 37:43Speaker 8: the third season.
- 37:44Speaker 9: It takes so long to get the season on.
- 37:45Speaker 2: It takes a year.
- 37:46Speaker 8: Either people have figured out a way to watch it
- 37:49Speaker 8: another way, or they just lost interest.
- 37:51Speaker 7: Or, yeah, they've moved on to six new series because
- 37:53Speaker 7: there's a new one coming out every day.
- 37:55Speaker 2: There's no way that we can continue to make this.
- 37:58Speaker 2: I mean, they're all.
- 37:59Speaker 7: They're all pretty good.
- 38:00Speaker 8: Yeah, you can get.
- 38:01Speaker 2: Involved in them really quick. And, like, I watch way
- 38:04Speaker 2: too much TV now. Like, it does take away from
- 38:08Speaker 2: my movies. Like, it really does.
- 38:10Speaker 6: But.
- 38:12Speaker 2: it's, and there's nights where I'm like, oh, I don't
- 38:14Speaker 2: have time for a movie and then I'll watch three
- 38:16Speaker 2: of the episodes.
- 38:18Speaker 9: Yeah.
- 38:19Speaker 2: And I do, I do kind of, I do like
- 38:22Speaker 2: the whole thing, but also they're kind of forgettable really
- 38:24Speaker 2: quickly too. I feel like a lot of TV shows,
- 38:26Speaker 2: Buster ones.
- 38:27Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 38:27Speaker 2: I feel like movies I remember way more about, or I,
- 38:31Speaker 2: I go back to, I rarely want to go back
- 38:33Speaker 2: to a plot line of a TV show and rewatch it. It's,
- 38:36Speaker 2: there's only a few that I would do that with.
- 38:38Speaker 7: I think that's where I've stayed because I know how,
- 38:40Speaker 7: what a slippery slope it is. So like, I do
- 38:43Speaker 7: still focus on like, I just want to watch a
- 38:44Speaker 7: movie and that I just want to focus and watch
- 38:47Speaker 7: that movie. Whereas TV is just sort of going on
- 38:49Speaker 7: in the background. So I try not to like get
- 38:52Speaker 7: too involved in too many series because then I know
- 38:55Speaker 7: how much time I have to invest versus 90 minutes,
- 38:57Speaker 7: you know.
- 38:58Speaker 2: If I'm watching a show, I'll have my laptop open
- 39:00Speaker 2: and my workout. If I'm watching a movie, I turn
- 39:03Speaker 2: the lights off.
- 39:03Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 39:04Speaker 2: You know, I watch a movie. I mean, and there's
- 39:07Speaker 2: a difference. I mean, you know.
- 39:10Speaker 7: It's, yeah, it's a whole different experience. So on that, again,
- 39:14Speaker 7: we'll throw it out again at the end, but what's,
- 39:16Speaker 7: you know, for people out there that are learning about
- 39:18Speaker 7: it the way that I did, what's the best way
- 39:20Speaker 7: to keep up with you guys or find out more
- 39:23Speaker 7: or start making the pilgrimage to get themselves here?
- 39:26Speaker 2: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. we're all pretty active on. If
- 39:31Speaker 2: you're in Atlanta, we have week rentals. You can be
- 39:34Speaker 2: pretty far away and still get here. We have people
- 39:39Speaker 2: mail stuff back. Like I said, Atlanta has changed so
- 39:45Speaker 2: much since we've been here that Atlanta is went from
- 39:48Speaker 2: a tiny city to a big city.
- 39:50Speaker 7: In, in a very movie oriented city now.
- 39:54Speaker 2: And that helps a little bit too. There's more people
- 39:56Speaker 2: engaged in movies.
- 39:57Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 39:57Speaker 8: We don't have people coming in and being like, um,
- 40:00Speaker 8: my director, my producer needs these five movies because he's
- 40:03Speaker 8: trying to, you know, learn a certain shot.
- 40:05Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 40:06Speaker 6: That happens.
- 40:07Speaker 7: So I guess start at the website. Is that the
- 40:09Speaker 7: best place to, I.
- 40:10Speaker 2: Mean, the website is social media is, is pretty good. Um,
- 40:18Speaker 2: I mean, if you live in Atlanta, yeah, we have
- 40:20Speaker 2: events a good bit. We also show movies in bars
- 40:23Speaker 2: around town and some stuff like that, sponsor some of
- 40:26Speaker 2: that stuff. Like I said, I'm trying to get our
- 40:29Speaker 2: events at Plaza to be more even event-y. I'm definitely doing...
- 40:33Speaker 2: At the end of this month, on the 26th, we
- 40:35Speaker 2: have a screening with Lunch Meat, which is a VHS
- 40:39Speaker 2: magazine out of North Carolina.
- 40:40Speaker 3: Yeah. And.
- 40:43Speaker 2: Um, we're going to have a VHS marketplace in the
- 40:45Speaker 2: lobby and then screen a movie on VHS for the
- 40:48Speaker 2: first time.
- 40:48Speaker 7: It's crazy how much that fan base has come back.
- 40:51Speaker 6: Yeah. Rapid.
- 40:52Speaker 7: Those fans are again.
- 40:54Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 40:54Speaker 2: We're screening a really bad shot on video movie called
- 40:57Speaker 2: video violence. Um, and then, so yeah, our events are
- 41:02Speaker 2: really fun and they're worth coming to. Um, you know, I, it's,
- 41:07Speaker 2: it's really, I would say, um, try to find a
- 41:09Speaker 2: video store in your area. If you're listening from somewhere else,
- 41:12Speaker 2: get involved in that.
- 41:13Speaker 7: At this point, I only say this because I know
- 41:18Speaker 7: someone who's been a friend of the show for years
- 41:20Speaker 7: and just put up a fundraising Kickstarter Indiegogo kind of
- 41:25Speaker 7: thing to open his store. He wants to do mostly VHS.
- 41:29Speaker 7: It is something you can do a smaller, weird version of.
- 41:34Speaker 2: It's coming back a little bit. There's a new store
- 41:36Speaker 2: in Baltimore called Beyond Video. There's Video Vortex. The new
- 41:43Speaker 2: Alamo Drafthouses are opening with a video store attached. Like
- 41:47Speaker 2: a video store, cafe, bar concept. And there's one in
- 41:53Speaker 2: LA now that just opened. There's one in North Carolina, Raleigh,
- 41:56Speaker 2: I think. I think that is part of it, too.
- 41:58Speaker 7: Adding a different aspect to it and making it a bar.
- 42:02Speaker 7: So it is a social event. And yet you can
- 42:04Speaker 7: go rent a movie.
- 42:06Speaker 2: We wish we had the space for something like that.
- 42:08Speaker 8: One of the limitations of doing that now is square footage.
- 42:13Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 42:14Speaker 8: I mean, we've got a lot of stuff faced out,
- 42:17Speaker 8: but we have, you know, probably 90% of it is sideways.
- 42:20Speaker 9: But we've got a pretty big spot. Most of the
- 42:22Speaker 9: stores aren't that big.
- 42:23Speaker 7: A huge amount of stock. And that's what I said
- 42:25Speaker 7: when I was walking around earlier and you were watching
- 42:27Speaker 7: me just drooling.
- 42:28Speaker 2: I was just.
- 42:29Speaker 7: I forgot how much I missed it. Like, it's only
- 42:31Speaker 7: been a few years since I was in the middle
- 42:32Speaker 7: of it regularly.
- 42:33Speaker 9: But yeah, space is a premium. We just keep going up.
- 42:37Speaker 9: I'm like, well, eventually we're not.
- 42:39Speaker 7: Going to have those library ladders you get to roll around.
- 42:41Speaker 9: Yeah, basically. All right.
- 42:44Speaker 7: Well, definitely.
- 42:45Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 42:45Speaker 7: Come come find you guys and check it out. We'll
- 42:48Speaker 7: take our break here and we'll come back and talk
- 42:50Speaker 7: about a movie.
- 43:11Speaker 12: Hi, I'm Brandi Little, and I'll be taking you through
- 43:13Speaker 12: the Blockbuster Customer Service Program. In the last few years,
- 43:17Speaker 12: the retail business has become increasingly competitive. More and more
- 43:21Speaker 12: retailers have been struggling just to stay alive. The survivors
- 43:26Speaker 12: follow a simple formula, listening to their customers and meeting
- 43:30Speaker 12: their expectations. That's not a formula for success. That's a
- 43:34Speaker 12: formula for survival.
- 43:36Speaker 7: Excuse me, what do you know about this movie?
- 43:38Speaker 5: Uh, nothing.
- 43:40Speaker 7: Haven't seen it. Sorry.
- 43:45Speaker 11: Yes, there's an air about hot coffee that's hard to resist. Full-bodied,
- 43:51Speaker 11: refreshing hot coffee makes any time a pleasant interlude. Won't
- 43:57Speaker 11: you have some now?
- 43:58Speaker 7: We should have our coffee. I know you like coffee.
- 44:05Speaker 5: Oh my god, is this a segue to something?
- 44:08Speaker 6: What?
- 44:09Speaker 7: You don't want to run out to Heine Brothers right now?
- 44:11Speaker 5: Actually, you know, now that you mention it, I'm drinking
- 44:13Speaker 5: some fine coffee here, but... I feel like enjoying a
- 44:16Speaker 5: nice hot cup from my local Heine brothers might actually
- 44:19Speaker 5: be an even better idea.
- 44:20Speaker 7: Well, really, you don't even have to leave the house.
- 44:23Speaker 7: You could just have it ordered right to your doorstep.
- 44:26Speaker 9: Really?
- 44:27Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 44:27Speaker 5: They can do that now?
- 44:28Speaker 7: It's not just something you can do. You can also
- 44:30Speaker 7: get a deal from your friends at Movie Meltdown.
- 44:33Speaker 6: No way.
- 44:34Speaker 5: Movie Meltdown?
- 44:35Speaker 9: That's the show we're on, right?
- 44:36Speaker 7: Yeah, this one right now.
- 44:38Speaker 6: Oh, that's awesome.
- 44:39Speaker 5: Hey, insert a sound of me kicking over this table
- 44:41Speaker 5: with this substandard coffee.
- 44:43Speaker 7: There right there yeah yeah you.
- 44:45Speaker 5: And then and then uh and then uh let's run
- 44:48Speaker 5: out jump in the car and then screech sound effect
- 44:50Speaker 5: as we head on down to our local heinie brothers
- 44:53Speaker 5: there man subtle subtle segue i.
- 45:00Speaker 7: Want to tell you about the heinie brothers coffee subscription
- 45:04Speaker 7: wherever you are home work or out on the road
- 45:07Speaker 7: you deserve great coffee and the Heine Brothers subscription plan
- 45:10Speaker 7: gives you top-quality, organic, fair-trade coffee delivered right to your
- 45:15Speaker 7: home or office automatically. You select the frequency, the quantity,
- 45:19Speaker 7: and the variety of coffee, and Heine Brothers will take
- 45:21Speaker 7: care of the rest, shipping included. So just order online
- 45:25Speaker 7: at heinebrotherscoffee.com slash subscription and use the offer code MELTDOWN
- 45:29Speaker 7: for $ 5 off any gift subscription. And if you're not
- 45:31Speaker 7: familiar with Heine Brothers coffee, or the spelling, or any
- 45:34Speaker 7: of that that might make it.
- 45:36Speaker 2: A little harder.
- 45:36Speaker 7: Just go to MovieMeltdown.com and look on the right-hand side
- 45:39Speaker 7: of the page and you'll find a link to take
- 45:40Speaker 7: you right to HoneyBrothersCoffee.com. That's right, the Meltdown Caffeinated Movie
- 45:45Speaker 7: Geeks are hooking you up, so get your subscription started today.
- 45:49Speaker 7: Coming soon to own on videocassette.
- 45:51Speaker 4: They just stole the absent-minded professor's greatest invention.
- 45:56Speaker 2: Oh, fusion.
- 45:57Speaker 4: But the invention.
- 45:58Speaker 11: Has other plans.
- 46:01Speaker 4: On November 26th, the goo is loose.
- 46:10Speaker 9: I don't know where it comes from.
- 46:12Speaker 11: It will give you one heck of a headache. Robin Williams.
- 46:17Speaker 4: Lover.
- 46:18Speaker 9: Rated PG.
- 46:19Speaker 4: Starts Wednesday, November 26th.
- 46:29Speaker 7: Don't you guys like horror?
- 46:31Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 46:32Speaker 7: Don't you think everybody should join the Malkatier Horror Club?
- 46:36Speaker 10: Yes.
- 46:37Speaker 7: I think you should go to MovieMeltdown.com right now and
- 46:40Speaker 7: just click on the Patreon link and join up. And
- 46:43Speaker 7: then all these amazing horror-themed episodes we've got coming up
- 46:46Speaker 7: that you can listen to at the lowest level. I
- 46:49Speaker 7: try to keep it so everybody can join in. So
- 46:52Speaker 7: you can throw more money at us if you want.
- 46:54Speaker 7: But mostly, as long as you kick in a couple
- 46:58Speaker 7: of bucks, you can always listen to the horror episodes
- 47:02Speaker 7: and experience the horror with us. So join the club now.
- 47:08Speaker 9: Don't you want to be cool?
- 47:09Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, really.
- 47:11Speaker 7: Don't you want to be cool? All the cool kids
- 47:12Speaker 7: are doing it.
- 47:14Speaker 4: Okay, wait.
- 47:15Speaker 7: Just by being a movie geek, you're already not a
- 47:17Speaker 7: cool kid, and neither are we. So all the geeks
- 47:20Speaker 7: are doing it. Join the club now. Cool's a relative
- 47:24Speaker 7: term anyway. Certainly is today. So, yeah, get on board.
- 47:31Speaker 7: Join right now, and you can partake in that and
- 47:34Speaker 7: all of our other ridiculous discussions about horror.
- 47:37Speaker 2: What is the minimum again?
- 47:39Speaker 7: Two bucks.
- 47:39Speaker 11: Two dollars.
- 47:40Speaker 7: Two dollars.
- 47:41Speaker 9: Two dollars.
- 47:41Speaker 7: That's all you need to listen to the episodes. So,
- 47:44Speaker 7: I mean, it kind of keeps us alive. I was
- 47:47Speaker 7: discussing the horrible situation it's been to try to keep
- 47:51Speaker 7: things going earlier to these poor bastards. Like, yeah, it's
- 47:56Speaker 7: not just like, hey, I'm rich and I want your
- 47:58Speaker 7: money anyway. It really does keep the show going to
- 48:02Speaker 7: the level that people don't realize. Yes. It's kind of
- 48:05Speaker 7: the only way it's survived this last year and a
- 48:07Speaker 7: half or so since we started this.
- 48:10Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 48:11Speaker 7: So, it is not only greatly appreciated, but it gives
- 48:15Speaker 7: us kind of a good way to come up with
- 48:18Speaker 7: something specific to put out there just for these people
- 48:21Speaker 7: that we know actually care enough to kick in.
- 48:24Speaker 9: Yeah, you get a lot of great stuff for that $ 2.
- 48:25Speaker 7: That's what I'm saying. I like being able to craft
- 48:28Speaker 7: something for a very special group. So, you guys are
- 48:31Speaker 7: super cool, and then you get these awesome episodes. So,
- 48:35Speaker 7: One more reason, go join up now. So go to
- 48:38Speaker 7: our Patreon page, join the Meltdown Club, become a Melkateer,
- 48:42Speaker 7: you get cool stuff, and you can help us keep
- 48:45Speaker 7: the Meltdown rolling. Damn the man, save the Meltdown.
- 48:55Speaker 12: Sometimes, even with the best intentions, our efforts fall short
- 48:58Speaker 12: of exceeding customer expectations. At other times, our efforts don't
- 49:02Speaker 12: even meet their minimal expectations.
- 49:05Speaker 6: What do you mean I returned my last video late?
- 49:08Speaker 7: That was the day that ice storm came through. I
- 49:10Speaker 7: couldn't even get out of my driveway.
- 49:11Speaker 6: Computer says it was late.
- 49:13Speaker 9: I'm sorry.
- 49:14Speaker 6: That's the policy.
- 49:15Speaker 10: I'm listening to Movie Meltdown because I'm John Saxon and
- 49:20Speaker 10: I like.
- 49:23Speaker 7: To do that.
- 49:26Speaker 2: I'm listening to Movie Meltdown.
- 49:38Speaker 8: It's time for Sofa Theater.
- 49:40Speaker 5: Jackie Chan.
- 49:42Speaker 8: Hold it!
- 49:42Speaker 11: Dynamic. Dauntless.
- 49:44Speaker 7: Resource-friendly.
- 50:13Speaker 3: A lady's man. He's no average cop. But he gets
- 50:26Speaker 3: the job done. At first, he was hailed as a hero.
- 50:35Speaker 2: Lock him in the cells. Yes, sir.
- 50:37Speaker 4: Book him.
- 50:39Speaker 3: For murder. Until he got set up.
- 50:44Speaker 11: Get in!
- 50:46Speaker 3: Now his whole police precinct is after him. To clear
- 50:55Speaker 3: his name, his only chance is to get the crooks
- 50:57Speaker 3: who framed him. Jackie Chan is a one-man battalion. As
- 51:12Speaker 3: he sets his record straight in Police Story.
- 51:30Speaker 8: All right.
- 51:33Speaker 7: So we are back, and we've kind of tag-teamed out here.
- 51:36Speaker 7: So would you like to introduce yourself? Matt, you're still here, but.
- 51:39Speaker 6: Yeah. My name is Ian Deaton. I have a lot
- 51:43Speaker 6: of jobs. I work at Videodrome. I'm a maintenance man.
- 51:47Speaker 6: I'm also a composer of low-budget films. I write stuff.
- 51:57Speaker 6: I play music in town. Yeah. You know, music and
- 52:04Speaker 6: movies is pretty much all I give a shit about. Yeah. Yeah,
- 52:08Speaker 6: that's it. And that's all I do with my time.
- 52:11Speaker 7: That sounds like more than enough. That should keep you busy. Alright,
- 52:15Speaker 7: well then you've decided to sit in for this week's movie.
- 52:18Speaker 7: So we had a few different options, but I thought
- 52:20Speaker 7: this just sort of represents such a subsection of video
- 52:24Speaker 7: stores that, like this one, that took off. And it's
- 52:27Speaker 7: like the kind of stuff you would never find at
- 52:30Speaker 7: a Blockbuster. So I thought this was just a nice
- 52:32Speaker 7: tie-in for the kind of things that you guys work
- 52:35Speaker 7: with and what built the independent video store kind of market, basically.
- 52:39Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 52:40Speaker 7: So, yes, this week's Sofa Theater feature is Police Story.
- 52:43Speaker 7: The year is 1985. The director is, surprise, Jackie Chan.
- 52:48Speaker 7: And it also credits Chi-Hwan Chin. And they plot according
- 52:52Speaker 7: to IMDb. And I already argue. I argue every week
- 52:55Speaker 7: with IMDb. But a virtuous Hong Kong police officer must
- 52:59Speaker 7: clear his good name when the drug lord he is
- 53:02Speaker 7: after frames him for the murder of a dirty cop.
- 53:05Speaker 7: Spoiler alert and virtuous? I don't know about virtuous. He's
- 53:11Speaker 7: an okay guy, but like.
- 53:13Speaker 2: That's close. Otherwise, it's... He's not quite Dirty Harry.
- 53:17Speaker 6: No.
- 53:17Speaker 7: He probably thinks he is. I think they're playing with
- 53:20Speaker 7: that little dynamic.
- 53:21Speaker 2: There's a Buster Keaton meets Clint Eastwood thing going on
- 53:24Speaker 2: with Jackie Chan in that movie, but I think... And
- 53:28Speaker 2: he does go out on his own and disobey some
- 53:29Speaker 2: orders or whatever.
- 53:32Speaker 7: It's almost like it's sort of like lampooning that type
- 53:36Speaker 7: of movie at the same time. It's at moments doing
- 53:40Speaker 7: a genuine version of it, and then sometimes he's like,
- 53:43Speaker 7: and I'm going to fight with my commanding officer because
- 53:45Speaker 7: that's what cops do in these movies. It almost is
- 53:47Speaker 7: self-aware of that, sort of. Even though as early as
- 53:51Speaker 7: it is, we didn't have near as many of them yet.
- 53:53Speaker 7: But there are moments when it feels very Stallone-ish. It's
- 53:57Speaker 7: every Cobra movie that he made that he's a cop
- 54:00Speaker 7: with an attitude. And I'm like, it feels like it's
- 54:03Speaker 7: almost making fun of that. But again, this is so
- 54:06Speaker 7: early on, he barely had a chance to be doing that.
- 54:08Speaker 7: But it does kind of, at moments, play like a
- 54:10Speaker 7: weird Stallone movie.
- 54:12Speaker 6: Yeah, he was actually friends with Sylvester Stallone. And Sylvester Stallone... God, I.
- 54:20Speaker 2: Keep forgetting.
- 54:21Speaker 6: The guy who directed Tango and Cash is like a
- 54:24Speaker 6: Scandinavian filmmaker that made the movie. I think he was
- 54:27Speaker 6: fired from it. But anyways, they asked Jackie Chan permission
- 54:30Speaker 6: if they could do, in Tango and Cash, the stunt
- 54:33Speaker 6: from Police Story where he stands in front of the bus.
- 54:37Speaker 6: It stops and the crooks fly out and they do
- 54:40Speaker 6: that in Tango and Cash.
- 54:42Speaker 7: Okay.
- 54:45Speaker 6: Those guys did not have to go to the hospital afterwards,
- 54:47Speaker 6: whereas in Police Story.
- 54:48Speaker 7: Because they were heavily trained in Harness to Stuntman, probably.
- 54:52Speaker 6: Yeah, and in Police Story, they didn't really have a
- 54:54Speaker 6: lot of time, and even though his friends were trained,
- 54:58Speaker 6: they still... He said a lot of the setups that
- 55:00Speaker 6: they would do, they didn't even have time to rehearse.
- 55:02Speaker 6: He would just sketch out a premise for the stunt,
- 55:05Speaker 6: and they would just go for it because they were
- 55:11Speaker 6: losing light or they had to keep moving or something
- 55:14Speaker 6: like that.
- 55:15Speaker 7: I guess we can also kind of look at the arcs.
- 55:18Speaker 7: I mean, I guess just for people like where– because
- 55:20Speaker 7: this is kind of midway in on his early days.
- 55:23Speaker 7: Like he already established himself in more of the traditional
- 55:26Speaker 7: martial arts, drunken masquerade kind of stuff. So he was
- 55:30Speaker 7: already kind of a star in that world, but he
- 55:32Speaker 7: was like obviously like dying to break through to the
- 55:34Speaker 7: American market.
- 55:35Speaker 6: Yeah. And he was, oh, I'm sorry.
- 55:37Speaker 7: No, go ahead.
- 55:38Speaker 6: He kind of played like, you know, random, you know,
- 55:41Speaker 6: like thug number one and stuff and a lot of
- 55:43Speaker 6: the early stuff. And then when he started to be, um,
- 55:46Speaker 6: you know, moving up the ranks to sort of like
- 55:48Speaker 6: second banana in some of the movies. And then, um,
- 55:51Speaker 6: when he actually got in the position of being leading man,
- 55:55Speaker 6: Robert Close, uh, who directed Enter the Dragon, like it
- 55:58Speaker 6: was kind of like, I'm going to make this guy
- 55:59Speaker 6: the next Bruce Lee and very much an exploitation cinema
- 56:03Speaker 6: kind of fashion. Um, And he made, yeah, a couple,
- 56:08Speaker 6: I think two films with him. And then did Cannibal
- 56:11Speaker 6: Run 1 and 2.
- 56:13Speaker 2: My first interaction with Jackie Chan was seeing him in
- 56:15Speaker 2: Cannibal Run. And as a kid, you know, I was, what,
- 56:19Speaker 2: 9 or something, you know, when that came out. I mean,
- 56:21Speaker 2: I think I saw that, not in a theater, but
- 56:24Speaker 2: maybe on VHS when I was 10 or 11. That's
- 56:26Speaker 2: my introduction to Jackie Chan personally.
- 56:27Speaker 7: It shows how much crossover there was before. and how
- 56:30Speaker 7: well established he was somewhere else in the world before
- 56:33Speaker 7: he got, because I think my first, at least, again,
- 56:36Speaker 7: I think I'd seen Cannonball Run already on cable, and
- 56:39Speaker 7: I didn't really know who it was. The first time
- 56:41Speaker 7: I knew the name was because I remember he had
- 56:44Speaker 7: an 8-bit Nintendo game that came out that was imported in,
- 56:48Speaker 7: and I think got pretty, because it was at, like,
- 56:50Speaker 7: Toys R Us, and it had his name slapped on
- 56:52Speaker 7: the title. And I'm like, well, who's this guy? You know,
- 56:56Speaker 7: I'm like, this isn't, you know, it's, nobody else had
- 56:59Speaker 7: broke through in America really that like was mainstream other
- 57:02Speaker 7: than Bruce Lee. So it's like, who's this guy that
- 57:04Speaker 7: gets his own video game? Like, so that he was
- 57:06Speaker 7: that famous there to already have a video game named
- 57:09Speaker 7: after him seemed strange to me. And then it was
- 57:12Speaker 7: like a year or two later, like I kept seeing
- 57:14Speaker 7: all these movies come out and I was like, okay,
- 57:16Speaker 7: this was just, this kind of beat the push of
- 57:18Speaker 7: VHS making its way over here. And before they started
- 57:21Speaker 7: importing all the other stuff, again, the video stores hadn't
- 57:24Speaker 7: caught up yet. Like the indie movement, still hadn't really hit.
- 57:28Speaker 7: The mom and pop stores weren't really buying into the
- 57:30Speaker 7: martial arts fully at that point.
- 57:32Speaker 2: I mean, yeah. And really his time in America was
- 57:35Speaker 2: kind of a disaster for him. So, so he came here,
- 57:37Speaker 2: he thought of himself, thought of himself as failing because,
- 57:41Speaker 2: you know, we didn't make movies the same way that
- 57:43Speaker 2: they made there. And you know, he needed more freedom.
- 57:46Speaker 2: He didn't more.
- 57:47Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 57:47Speaker 6: Even on, uh, I'm sorry. I was going to say
- 57:50Speaker 6: the protector, the, I think, um, forgot that guy's name. Uh,
- 57:55Speaker 6: Glicken house, I believe was the director. And he almost
- 57:59Speaker 6: got fired and or walked from the project because he
- 58:03Speaker 6: would watch how he would do the setups for the
- 58:06Speaker 6: action sequences. And he straight up was like, you don't
- 58:08Speaker 6: fucking know how to direct action. This is lazy. It's bad.
- 58:11Speaker 6: Like it's not going to have like the hits that
- 58:13Speaker 6: you need when you string it all together. And he
- 58:17Speaker 6: tried to walk off the project. And yeah, kind of
- 58:20Speaker 6: like what we were talking about earlier before the podcast,
- 58:22Speaker 6: it's like essentially sort of, you know, was going back
- 58:27Speaker 6: and forth between Hong Kong and Hollywood. And then after the,
- 58:31Speaker 6: you know, not being able to break through because of
- 58:34Speaker 6: his Hollywood projects, he kind of, you know, returns to
- 58:37Speaker 6: Hong Kong with his tail between his legs, sort of like, fuck, like, and,
- 58:40Speaker 6: you know, he started to direct movies and, you know,
- 58:44Speaker 6: get creative control, but nothing really like hit. And then, yeah, police.
- 58:49Speaker 2: Stories and big sort of comeback. Like it's his, He's
- 58:53Speaker 2: like I'm gonna put everything into this movie.
- 58:55Speaker 7: Yeah, I've got and possibly kill myself.
- 58:57Speaker 6: Yeah, like most of.
- 58:58Speaker 2: His yeah I'm he's really went for it, you know,
- 59:01Speaker 2: and as you can see police stories built around two
- 59:03Speaker 2: three major stunt Yeah, you know and and and that's
- 59:07Speaker 2: what he had in his head is these stunts where
- 59:09Speaker 2: he wanted to do them you know and he he
- 59:12Speaker 2: then he got scriptwriters to tie it all together yeah
- 59:15Speaker 2: and you can feel that but it's still a really
- 59:18Speaker 2: effective comedy too yeah um and it works as a
- 59:21Speaker 2: movie i think better than A lot of Jackie Chan
- 59:25Speaker 2: movies do. Like, there's a, you know, you feel for
- 59:28Speaker 2: the character a little bit more.
- 59:29Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 59:29Speaker 2: I mean, not that you don't always feel for, Jackie
- 59:32Speaker 2: Chan's a great whatever, but the supporting cast is good.
- 59:35Speaker 7: He's almost just become his own persona. Like, it doesn't
- 59:38Speaker 7: matter what you call his character. Like, it's Jackie Chan.
- 59:40Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 59:40Speaker 7: And, like, he's almost always, at least in the more
- 59:43Speaker 7: modern era, again, if you go back to the older ones,
- 59:45Speaker 7: maybe it's different. But everything I've seen him in that's, like,
- 59:48Speaker 7: in a modern day setting, it's like he's still kind
- 59:50Speaker 7: of that guy. Yeah. Which I think has worked in
- 59:52Speaker 7: his favor for just bringing in a basic general fan.
- 59:56Speaker 2: They're like, oh, it's that guy.
- 59:57Speaker 7: It's Jackie Chan. I know him. I think it makes
- 59:59Speaker 7: it easier to kind of just join into any movie
- 1:00:01Speaker 7: and you'll be like, you know who he is. So
- 1:00:04Speaker 7: you can just throw yourself in the movie. You don't
- 1:00:06Speaker 7: need any history. Oh, it's Jackie Chan. And he's playing
- 1:00:09Speaker 7: essentially that same character.
- 1:00:10Speaker 6: Absolutely. Yeah, and you can even see, I know that
- 1:00:13Speaker 6: definitely American and some European cop thrillers were popular in Asia.
- 1:00:19Speaker 6: So you can see little touches where especially the score
- 1:00:22Speaker 6: to Police Story.
- 1:00:24Speaker 2: Great score.
- 1:00:24Speaker 6: Yeah, really great synthesized score. And there's even parts, like,
- 1:00:29Speaker 6: for example, when he's, like, moonwalking after that, like, whole
- 1:00:34Speaker 6: noodle telephone kind of Buster Keaton gag, and it busts
- 1:00:38Speaker 6: into this, like, Harold Faltermeyer-ish Herbie Hancock, like, do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do sort
- 1:00:43Speaker 6: of thing, like, and it's obviously that's a reference to
- 1:00:46Speaker 6: Beverly Hills Cop.
- 1:00:47Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 1:00:48Speaker 6: So... I don't know, it's interesting listening to the score
- 1:00:52Speaker 6: and some of the action sequences definitely either are kind
- 1:00:59Speaker 6: of touching a little bit on some stuff that was
- 1:01:01Speaker 6: popular in Asia or, even better, wound up heavily influencing
- 1:01:06Speaker 6: American and European action cinema later on. More specifically with
- 1:01:11Speaker 6: something like Point Break, where that movie would not be
- 1:01:16Speaker 6: as popular and as awesome anymore. if it had not
- 1:01:19Speaker 6: been for Jackie Chan and a lot of his friends
- 1:01:21Speaker 6: making Hong Kong action flicks, I mean the foot chase
- 1:01:24Speaker 6: alone between Keanu Reeves and, um, Patrick Swayze, like when
- 1:01:29Speaker 6: I first saw that, um, yeah, as an adult, after
- 1:01:34Speaker 6: watching Hong Kong stuff, I was like, Oh shit. Like,
- 1:01:37Speaker 6: this is a straight up Jackie Chan sequence. Like no
- 1:01:40Speaker 6: questions asked.
- 1:01:41Speaker 7: Like again, the audiences don't know where they're pulling from.
- 1:01:43Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 1:01:44Speaker 7: Filmmakers grew up as, as movie geeks and we're like
- 1:01:47Speaker 7: watching these, whatever they could get imported at that point.
- 1:01:49Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
- 1:01:50Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 1:01:51Speaker 2: I mean, I've always thought police stories, Jackie Chan's best film,
- 1:01:53Speaker 2: you know, overall and, and the sequels I like, I
- 1:01:57Speaker 2: like police story two and super cop. I mean, that
- 1:01:59Speaker 2: gets a little weird when they started coming back 10
- 1:02:01Speaker 2: years later, I think, but for the, whatever the fifth
- 1:02:03Speaker 2: and sixth or, rebooting their own series I mean and
- 1:02:06Speaker 2: I've always kind of thought of Police Story as like
- 1:02:08Speaker 2: the gateway to Hong Kong cinema for a lot of
- 1:02:10Speaker 2: people like if I want to I mean my I
- 1:02:13Speaker 2: think I saw The Killer maybe first John was The
- 1:02:15Speaker 2: Killer and like that got me on a Hong Kong
- 1:02:18Speaker 2: cinema and really quickly in the 90s you know video
- 1:02:23Speaker 2: stores were starting to get some of that early 90s
- 1:02:25Speaker 2: starting to get some of that stuff but I found
- 1:02:29Speaker 2: I found a group of friends who were heading out
- 1:02:30Speaker 2: to Buford Highway is like an area in town it's
- 1:02:33Speaker 2: like a that it's like a, maybe a 15 mile
- 1:02:36Speaker 2: strip of businesses that serves the immigrant community in Atlanta
- 1:02:40Speaker 2: and it's noodle houses and taco, taquerias. And it's amazing.
- 1:02:44Speaker 2: It's a really amazing place in Atlanta and it's been
- 1:02:47Speaker 2: there for years and it just gets crazier. It grows
- 1:02:50Speaker 2: a little bit more every year and there's, it gets
- 1:02:53Speaker 2: more smaller countries and more restaurants, but there were all
- 1:02:56Speaker 2: these sort of Asian markets that also rented videos. And
- 1:03:00Speaker 2: I would, go up there and you could rent 10
- 1:03:02Speaker 2: movies for for two weeks for a dollar piece and
- 1:03:05Speaker 2: they were just dubbed hong kong movies and you know
- 1:03:08Speaker 2: we get 10 at a time and i think i
- 1:03:11Speaker 2: would always if i wanted to get someone into that
- 1:03:13Speaker 2: i would show them the police story first and i
- 1:03:15Speaker 2: feel like that was like once you're into that you
- 1:03:18Speaker 2: understand what hong kong is all you know what that
- 1:03:21Speaker 2: style of filmmaking is about it's just pure entertainment non-stop
- 1:03:24Speaker 2: a mix of comedy a mix of you know everything
- 1:03:27Speaker 2: and i think And I got so many people into
- 1:03:30Speaker 2: Hong Kong cinema from Lee story.
- 1:03:32Speaker 6: Yeah. When you, when you show somebody, um, who likes
- 1:03:36Speaker 6: action cinema and they've never seen a Hong Kong flick, like, yeah,
- 1:03:42Speaker 6: I agree. It is the gateway, but also like most
- 1:03:45Speaker 6: of the time they've never seen anything.
- 1:03:47Speaker 2: For me, it was like I was watching Mar something
- 1:03:50Speaker 2: on Mars or aliens or something. I've never seen a
- 1:03:52Speaker 2: place like that. And, uh, I mean the, I mean,
- 1:03:56Speaker 2: the openings... Another thing about this Great Wall Police story
- 1:03:58Speaker 2: is it really gives you a view of the life
- 1:04:01Speaker 2: and geography of Hong Kong.
- 1:04:04Speaker 7: Yeah, when you said that, I was like, it's such
- 1:04:05Speaker 7: a window into the world, especially in America.
- 1:04:07Speaker 2: We never.
- 1:04:08Speaker 7: That shantytown. I'm like, we can't even imagine something like that.
- 1:04:12Speaker 7: And that's normal life for a lot of people.
- 1:04:14Speaker 2: It was at that time. I mean, those are all
- 1:04:17Speaker 2: gone now. But there were squatter villages on the whole
- 1:04:20Speaker 2: side of the island. And they essentially, I think, bought a.
- 1:04:24Speaker 7: bought the village and destroyed it, you know? Especially because
- 1:04:27Speaker 7: it's just so acknowledged. Like, it's not like we don't have,
- 1:04:30Speaker 7: I mean, we have a ridiculous homeless problem here, but like,
- 1:04:34Speaker 7: it's not, well, yeah, I guess LA is pretty accepted.
- 1:04:37Speaker 2: I went to LA last year and every underpass is
- 1:04:40Speaker 2: a squatter.
- 1:04:42Speaker 7: Maybe we're getting to this point, actually.
- 1:04:43Speaker 2: It's really interesting, actually, that it's, whatever, but, and I
- 1:04:47Speaker 2: went to Hong Kong two years ago and that place
- 1:04:52Speaker 2: You know, I know Hong Kong from movies, you know, and,
- 1:04:55Speaker 2: you know, Wong Kar Wai and all the different, you know,
- 1:04:59Speaker 2: the gangster movies and whatever. Hong Kong, 90s Hong Kong
- 1:05:03Speaker 2: is really one of my favorite genres. And that part
- 1:05:07Speaker 2: of Hong Kong is certainly disappearing. Like, you can find it,
- 1:05:11Speaker 2: I mean, but they're clearing out street after street of
- 1:05:14Speaker 2: the food stalls. There's none of the shanty town. That
- 1:05:19Speaker 2: doesn't exist at all anymore in Hong Kong. Hong Kong
- 1:05:21Speaker 2: is almost a giant shopping mall now.
- 1:05:23Speaker 7: Well, that's, I mean, it is another thing that I
- 1:05:25Speaker 7: love about film in general is, like, we do capture
- 1:05:28Speaker 7: these time and play. It's like you can't find that
- 1:05:30Speaker 7: 70s era Times Square anymore either. But you've got a
- 1:05:33Speaker 7: decade worth of movies that, like, made use of that. And, like,
- 1:05:36Speaker 7: now you go there and, again, it's so cleaned up. But, like,
- 1:05:39Speaker 7: so this is that same thing. It's like you get
- 1:05:41Speaker 7: a weird little window into what was going on then.
- 1:05:44Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 1:05:45Speaker 7: Again, how much it wasn't really a big deal for
- 1:05:48Speaker 7: them to drive cars down the side of the Shanty town.
- 1:05:50Speaker 2: And a look at the socioeconomic thing. Because you've got,
- 1:05:53Speaker 2: you know, he's kind of a working class cop. You've
- 1:05:56Speaker 2: got this dynamic with his bosses. You've got the gangsters.
- 1:06:00Speaker 2: And you kind of, there's a little, you learn a
- 1:06:02Speaker 2: lot about the society from watching those movies. And Police
- 1:06:06Speaker 2: Story has a lot of that built into them.
- 1:06:08Speaker 7: Well, this one definitely maybe more than most gives you
- 1:06:11Speaker 7: the entire spectrum because you've got shantytown with like people
- 1:06:15Speaker 7: just living, cooking over an open flame on the side
- 1:06:18Speaker 7: of a hill. And then we have a completely modern
- 1:06:20Speaker 7: mall that looks like probably the same one that I
- 1:06:22Speaker 7: went into in the mid 80s. So it's like the
- 1:06:26Speaker 7: fact that both of those are existing in this country,
- 1:06:28Speaker 7: it kind of shows you what you're dealing with. It
- 1:06:30Speaker 7: is ancient in some ways and it's got all this
- 1:06:33Speaker 7: history to it, but it was super modernized. if you
- 1:06:36Speaker 7: had money to live in that part of the world.
- 1:06:38Speaker 7: So it is a nice little kind of balance of
- 1:06:40Speaker 7: that time and place too.
- 1:06:42Speaker 2: And I also should say that we were finding, the
- 1:06:45Speaker 2: reason why we were able to get these Hong Kong
- 1:06:48Speaker 2: movies is that there was still a law from British
- 1:06:52Speaker 2: occupation where they had to subtitle all their movies in English.
- 1:06:55Speaker 2: So it was a carryover from that occupation and it
- 1:06:57Speaker 2: made it so those movies were available to us. I
- 1:07:01Speaker 2: would also go to Japanese video stores and try to
- 1:07:03Speaker 2: watch Japanese stuff and we had to watch them not subtitled.
- 1:07:05Speaker 2: Like we were getting there early.
- 1:07:07Speaker 7: Kind of guessing at the plug.
- 1:07:08Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 1:07:09Speaker 2: Or you would hope there'd be a fan sub one
- 1:07:11Speaker 2: that came out and like, look for that or whatever.
- 1:07:13Speaker 2: But really it's funny that this like kind of oppressive
- 1:07:18Speaker 2: thing that, that made it so that they, because usually
- 1:07:21Speaker 2: they're subtitled in either Mandarin or Cantonese, depending on what
- 1:07:24Speaker 2: language it is. And then also English. So you've got
- 1:07:26Speaker 2: these three layers that the talking plus the two layers
- 1:07:30Speaker 2: of subtitles. And then, You know, and it made it
- 1:07:33Speaker 2: available for the rest of the world. So it became
- 1:07:35Speaker 2: a big hit in England and became a big hit
- 1:07:36Speaker 2: in the U.S. And, like, it kind of opened those
- 1:07:38Speaker 2: movies up to everybody. It's kind of a strange coincidence
- 1:07:43Speaker 2: that that happened, sort of. But that's what made it
- 1:07:46Speaker 2: so our friends could watch it.
- 1:07:47Speaker 7: That's what's funny, too, is, like, now that we've gotten so, like,
- 1:07:50Speaker 7: used to the, even just going back to DVDs, but
- 1:07:54Speaker 7: the layering where you could just turn on and off subtitles. Yeah.
- 1:07:57Speaker 7: But like VHS days, it's like you got subtitles. And
- 1:08:00Speaker 7: then when it got imported and imported, you would have
- 1:08:02Speaker 7: two and three subtitles on the same screen sometimes.
- 1:08:05Speaker 2: And I would say dodgy subtitles. Normally, they're not.
- 1:08:12Speaker 2: Subtiles are so much better on DVDs now.
- 1:08:14Speaker 6: And sometimes they were the wrong color, too. They were
- 1:08:18Speaker 6: white and it wasn't widescreen underneath the mat. Yeah, exactly.
- 1:08:22Speaker 6: You'd have to guess.
- 1:08:23Speaker 2: I've seen so many Hong Kong movies that way where
- 1:08:25Speaker 2: I get to guess large parts of the dialogue, but
- 1:08:29Speaker 2: that's not what it is. You can catch it, what's
- 1:08:32Speaker 2: going on.
- 1:08:33Speaker 7: And again, that's not as important. Because even if you
- 1:08:37Speaker 7: ask Jackie, I'm sure when he started this, he had
- 1:08:40Speaker 7: the set pieces. the set pieces are what he, I'm
- 1:08:42Speaker 7: assuming was really more concerned about and staying alive, hopefully.
- 1:08:47Speaker 7: But like, yeah, he's handing off the dialogue to somebody
- 1:08:50Speaker 7: else because he's busy going, okay, we're going to drive
- 1:08:52Speaker 7: down this. We're going to jump on a bus. We're
- 1:08:54Speaker 7: going to go to the mall. Like he's got these
- 1:08:56Speaker 7: things in mind as like the focus of the movie.
- 1:08:59Speaker 7: And then like, you fill in the blanks with the
- 1:09:01Speaker 7: cops and the robbers and you know whatever else is
- 1:09:03Speaker 7: like not near as important as watching and i think
- 1:09:06Speaker 7: that's what i noticed so much this time because in
- 1:09:09Speaker 7: in i've seen some years ago but it's been a
- 1:09:11Speaker 7: while since i've seen much of even any of jackie
- 1:09:13Speaker 7: chan's stuff And in that time period, I've gotten to
- 1:09:16Speaker 7: be such a big Buster Keaton fan.
- 1:09:18Speaker 6: Oh, yeah.
- 1:09:19Speaker 7: And, like, watching him, like, as soon as he grabbed
- 1:09:21Speaker 7: the umbrella, I was just like, okay, we're about to see.
- 1:09:25Speaker 7: And it is the kind of stuff, like, there are
- 1:09:27Speaker 7: few people that in the entire history of cinema were
- 1:09:30Speaker 7: insane enough to do that. And Buster Keaton was one
- 1:09:32Speaker 7: of those that would, like, the grabbing onto a moving
- 1:09:35Speaker 7: car is something he would have done and did. And, like,
- 1:09:38Speaker 7: so Jackie Chan's that same level of guy that's just, like,
- 1:09:41Speaker 7: I'll jump onto a bus with an umbrella and hang
- 1:09:43Speaker 7: off the side of it as it's moving.
- 1:09:45Speaker 6: And there's very few filmmaking tricks, too. A lot of
- 1:09:47Speaker 6: times they're done in wide shots with no cuts. So
- 1:09:50Speaker 6: it's not like something where you're like, oh, they're just editing.
- 1:09:53Speaker 6: And it's like, no. Like, they shoot it like that
- 1:09:55Speaker 6: on purpose. No, I did it.
- 1:09:57Speaker 7: Those are Hollywood movies. That's not what Jackie does.
- 1:10:00Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting, too, even how he... times
- 1:10:08Speaker 6: his edits with action sequences. Um, if they're actually getting
- 1:10:12Speaker 6: into like, you know, fist fighting and stuff like that,
- 1:10:15Speaker 6: I watched this guy break it down. They, him and
- 1:10:19Speaker 6: I can't remember what his editor was, but they would
- 1:10:22Speaker 6: sit there and experiment with like different angles and stuff and,
- 1:10:26Speaker 6: you know, assemble them and watch and observe what was
- 1:10:29Speaker 6: like the hardest hitting thing. So if you actually break
- 1:10:32Speaker 6: down his fight sequences, um, he'll insert extra punches, um,
- 1:10:38Speaker 6: from different angles into very quickly. So your brain, uh,
- 1:10:43Speaker 6: doesn't even process that there might've been two or three
- 1:10:46Speaker 6: punches from different angles. You just see one and you
- 1:10:49Speaker 6: hear that sound. And then you're like, Holy shit. That,
- 1:10:52Speaker 6: why is that so hard hitting? Like you don't understand it.
- 1:10:54Speaker 6: And it's like, they sat down for like months and
- 1:10:57Speaker 6: tried to get this kind of, you know, little, um, uh,
- 1:11:03Speaker 6: math problem figured out and they're like alright when we
- 1:11:05Speaker 6: add two or three punches from these certain angles like
- 1:11:08Speaker 6: it's really hits the audience very hard so.
- 1:11:12Speaker 2: They do things like wear white shoes or white socks.
- 1:11:14Speaker 6: Yeah so the kicks you can follow them quicker but
- 1:11:17Speaker 6: it's a small thing but it's a big deal yeah
- 1:11:20Speaker 6: absolutely and whereas you know you watch no knocking on
- 1:11:24Speaker 6: Christopher Nolan but you watch one of his actual sequences.
- 1:11:26Speaker 7: And they're a fucking dark mess.
- 1:11:28Speaker 6: Like you can't you're like it's in an alleyway it's
- 1:11:31Speaker 6: low lit Everybody's wearing black clothes. I have no idea
- 1:11:34Speaker 6: if those are fists or feet. And someone's getting kicked. And,
- 1:11:38Speaker 6: you know, yeah, it's really frustrating as just a fan
- 1:11:43Speaker 6: of action cinema, especially with somebody like that, where it's
- 1:11:45Speaker 6: like he's a good director. Like, you know, if there's nothing,
- 1:11:49Speaker 6: he could pull it off if he wanted to. It's just,
- 1:11:52Speaker 6: I don't know. It's like, why even have the fight
- 1:11:54Speaker 6: at all if you're going to, because he pays so
- 1:11:56Speaker 6: much attention to everything else. And then it's kind of like,
- 1:12:00Speaker 6: it feels like he just was like, I don't know,
- 1:12:03Speaker 6: second unit, go out. We got this other shit to shoot.
- 1:12:05Speaker 6: You guys do whatever the fuck you want.
- 1:12:07Speaker 2: Come back.
- 1:12:07Speaker 6: And we'll cut it together. And then you watch it
- 1:12:10Speaker 6: on screen and you're like, where am I in this alleyway? Like,
- 1:12:12Speaker 6: I don't know. So, I don't know. Yeah, those really
- 1:12:16Speaker 6: small details. And especially, you know, reading about Jackie Chan's life,
- 1:12:21Speaker 6: like him. Oh, geez. What's the really big? Sammo Hung.
- 1:12:26Speaker 6: Sammo Hung. And some of his other friends, they all
- 1:12:32Speaker 6: met each other growing up in the Peking Opera. And
- 1:12:35Speaker 6: they all excelled in their classes and became part of
- 1:12:39Speaker 6: the Peking Opera traveling troupe and traveled all around Asia
- 1:12:43Speaker 6: from a very young age doing acrobatics and martial arts shows.
- 1:12:47Speaker 6: So it's like they were in the trenches together. They
- 1:12:49Speaker 6: got hurt. They did this kind of carnival-esque sort of thing.
- 1:12:53Speaker 6: And by the time they're making movies, that was just...
- 1:12:57Speaker 6: ingrained the the idea of showmanship and what they knew
- 1:13:02Speaker 6: certain things that really made the audience go okay great
- 1:13:05Speaker 6: so it's great to see that kind of like you
- 1:13:08Speaker 6: know i mean buster keaton comes from vaudeville and comes
- 1:13:11Speaker 6: from acrobatic so yeah exactly same kind of thing from
- 1:13:14Speaker 6: a purely performance aspect and you know police story because
- 1:13:18Speaker 6: it was so popular kicked off a whole run of
- 1:13:22Speaker 6: what some people refer to maybe insultingly as, like, gun-fu
- 1:13:26Speaker 6: or cop-fu movies. And, yeah, there's a bunch of incredibly
- 1:13:33Speaker 6: wonderful classics that came out of that cycle and obviously
- 1:13:36Speaker 6: kind of, you know, sort of went into John Woo's, like,
- 1:13:41Speaker 6: action cinema and stuff like that. But you got shit like,
- 1:13:44Speaker 6: you know, Yes, Madam, 1 and 2 with Cynthia Rothrock
- 1:13:46Speaker 6: and Michelle Yeoh. Like, just, you know... sometimes not the
- 1:13:51Speaker 6: greatest plots, but again, the action sequences cannot be beat.
- 1:13:54Speaker 6: I mean, you just are not going to see anything
- 1:13:56Speaker 6: like that anywhere else. Maybe some of the, you know, more,
- 1:14:01Speaker 6: it seems like those sequences are so difficult to pull
- 1:14:06Speaker 6: off from a filmmaking and performance perspective that it's like,
- 1:14:09Speaker 6: just now I'm starting to see American films. So they're
- 1:14:12Speaker 6: shooting it like that and doing it. And it's like,
- 1:14:15Speaker 6: that must be really difficult.
- 1:14:16Speaker 2: So like, john wick's the ultimate yeah i mean john
- 1:14:19Speaker 2: wick is that is a straight up hong kong movie
- 1:14:21Speaker 2: absolutely where they just focus like so much colors the
- 1:14:25Speaker 2: fights yeah yeah i.
- 1:14:26Speaker 7: Was thinking the i remember how much attention it got
- 1:14:29Speaker 7: um that first season of daredevil came out yeah that
- 1:14:32Speaker 7: fight you know in the hallway and it's just like
- 1:14:36Speaker 7: okay obviously somebody like but yeah it's like that's recent
- 1:14:39Speaker 7: to get into something like you know mainstream American TV
- 1:14:42Speaker 7: series kind of stuff that have gotten to that level finally.
- 1:14:45Speaker 2: Atomic Blonde.
- 1:14:45Speaker 7: Yeah, Atomic Blonde is amazing.
- 1:14:47Speaker 2: That whole up and down the stairwell. But those are
- 1:14:49Speaker 2: Hong Kong level things. But guys like.
- 1:14:52Speaker 6: There's stunt people who make those movies.
- 1:14:53Speaker 2: I mean, John Liu and Johnny To and... Ring of
- 1:14:56Speaker 2: the Lamb and those guys were conceiving things like that
- 1:14:59Speaker 2: in the late 80s, early 90s.
- 1:15:01Speaker 7: And doing it without any protection. No studio would back
- 1:15:07Speaker 7: that in this country.
- 1:15:09Speaker 6: Jackie Chan said that when all is said and done paperwork-wise,
- 1:15:14Speaker 6: the movie cost about $ 2 million and he invested most
- 1:15:18Speaker 6: of that himself. And then he also used his own
- 1:15:21Speaker 6: car and his own house in the movie. Because they
- 1:15:24Speaker 6: had to save as much as they possibly could. And
- 1:15:26Speaker 6: he was like, if we had made this movie, you know,
- 1:15:29Speaker 6: like The Protector in the U.S., he's like, it would
- 1:15:33Speaker 6: have easily cost $ 100 million. Like, no question asked. Wow.
- 1:15:37Speaker 7: That is, I mean, that's just indie filmmaking right there.
- 1:15:40Speaker 7: I mean, cause you, I, again, I talked to so
- 1:15:42Speaker 7: many indie directors and like, there are ones that are like, yeah,
- 1:15:44Speaker 7: we shot at my house. Like, you know, but that's
- 1:15:46Speaker 7: still what you're doing. He's just doing it where he
- 1:15:48Speaker 7: might be destroying half of the stuff along the way.
- 1:15:51Speaker 7: I mean, is that his car that the whole car thing,
- 1:15:53Speaker 7: the whole, I mean, cause again, that's one, how much
- 1:15:56Speaker 7: time did he spend just the timing on all of
- 1:15:59Speaker 7: those punches and going through the car and through the
- 1:16:01Speaker 7: windshield and like, it's, it's amazing.
- 1:16:03Speaker 6: Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, if you watch the, you know, the,
- 1:16:07Speaker 6: gag reel slash credits at the end which was influenced
- 1:16:11Speaker 6: by the ending of cannonball run because burr reynolds liked
- 1:16:14Speaker 6: to put gags at the end and he was like
- 1:16:16Speaker 6: oh i should do that it's fun um but yeah
- 1:16:18Speaker 6: you watch that and you can see ambulances like pulling
- 1:16:22Speaker 6: people out of the movie like and he almost.
- 1:16:26Speaker 2: Gets hit by that by that bubble decker bus like
- 1:16:28Speaker 2: it's he jumps out of the way the first time
- 1:16:30Speaker 2: it's crazy yeah he would have died right there i
- 1:16:32Speaker 2: mean definitely and Yeah.
- 1:16:34Speaker 6: And the stunt when he slides down the pole in
- 1:16:36Speaker 6: the mall, like they said, they basically, it was, I
- 1:16:39Speaker 6: think they had to stop shooting at like 630 or
- 1:16:42Speaker 6: something so the mall could open and they still had
- 1:16:44Speaker 6: to clean up and they didn't have everything set up.
- 1:16:47Speaker 6: Like he was going to slide down it and said,
- 1:16:49Speaker 6: land in a candy house. And that was the only padding.
- 1:16:52Speaker 6: And they didn't have enough time to detach all the lights.
- 1:16:55Speaker 6: And he was like, how am I going to do this?
- 1:16:56Speaker 6: And then his AD was like, all right, we got
- 1:16:59Speaker 6: to roll. Like, let's do it.
- 1:17:00Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 1:17:01Speaker 6: And that's exactly, he was like, I was so terrified.
- 1:17:04Speaker 6: I was going to just fall and splat and die
- 1:17:06Speaker 6: right there. But he knew he could hear all the
- 1:17:09Speaker 6: cameras worrying. Cause he said they had flashlights. 12 cameras.
- 1:17:12Speaker 6: 12 cameras going.
- 1:17:13Speaker 2: 12 cameras set up for that.
- 1:17:14Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 1:17:15Speaker 2: And got three in the shot.
- 1:17:17Speaker 7: That's why you see all three versions of it. I
- 1:17:20Speaker 7: almost died doing this. You're going to watch it. Yeah.
- 1:17:22Speaker 6: And he said basically once he heard that, he was like,
- 1:17:24Speaker 6: I could just, you know, it was money going down
- 1:17:26Speaker 6: the drain. And I'm like, we got to go. It's
- 1:17:28Speaker 6: the film used to work. I can't waste any time.
- 1:17:31Speaker 6: I hear them say they're rolling. Like, I have to
- 1:17:33Speaker 6: do this. And if it doesn't work, like, I might
- 1:17:35Speaker 6: lose my life.
- 1:17:36Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 1:17:37Speaker 6: And, you know, he did, when he hit the ground,
- 1:17:39Speaker 6: dislocated his pelvis and, I think, twisted his ankle or
- 1:17:41Speaker 6: something like that.
- 1:17:42Speaker 2: He also burned his hands. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The lights
- 1:17:45Speaker 2: didn't work out right, and they electrocuted the pole.
- 1:17:47Speaker 10: Ugh.
- 1:17:48Speaker 7: I thought it was just they were hot. That's the
- 1:17:50Speaker 7: other thing. I wasn't thinking, but I was just, like,
- 1:17:52Speaker 7: the fact that, like, now it's all LED lighting, but
- 1:17:54Speaker 7: I'm like, those lights, like, you think about old lights.
- 1:17:57Speaker 2: Used to get so But he smashed all the lights,
- 1:17:59Speaker 2: and I think it hit him. They didn't expect the
- 1:18:04Speaker 2: pole to be hot. That wasn't part of it.
- 1:18:06Speaker 6: And just sliding down a big brass pole like that
- 1:18:08Speaker 6: is going to pull your skin off, too. But it's one.
- 1:18:12Speaker 2: I mean, who can forget that moment? I mean, no
- 1:18:15Speaker 2: one's seen anyone.
- 1:18:16Speaker 6: Yeah. He also said he had to jump an additional
- 1:18:19Speaker 6: eight feet out to get to the pole off of
- 1:18:22Speaker 6: a round pole that he was standing on. And he
- 1:18:24Speaker 6: was like... you know, it wasn't just a hop to,
- 1:18:27Speaker 6: and then go, it's like, no, if I miss, I'm
- 1:18:30Speaker 6: definitely going to die.
- 1:18:31Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 1:18:32Speaker 6: So yeah, it was, it's fucking, I mean, the movie's
- 1:18:36Speaker 6: incredible and that's why we're going to show it.
- 1:18:39Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, we should say we're, one of the reasons
- 1:18:41Speaker 2: we're off to talk about is that we'll be showing
- 1:18:43Speaker 2: police story. It's the new 4k restoration from Janus Films,
- 1:18:47Speaker 2: the people who also run Criterion. We're going to show
- 1:18:49Speaker 2: it Thursday, September 19th at 9.30pm at the Plaza Theater.
- 1:18:54Speaker 6: Yeah, the historic Plaza Theater in Midtown Atlanta.
- 1:18:58Speaker 2: In 4K?
- 1:18:59Speaker 6: Yeah. Nice.
- 1:19:00Speaker 2: They have a really nice 4K projector there and they've
- 1:19:03Speaker 2: done a lot of work on it. It's a really
- 1:19:05Speaker 2: special place to watch a movie.
- 1:19:06Speaker 6: Yes, absolutely. It's got a wonderful history. It's been opened
- 1:19:10Speaker 6: since the thirties, um, went through a period. You can
- 1:19:14Speaker 6: still find pictures of it online where it was a
- 1:19:16Speaker 6: grindhouse and they showed like porno movies and horror films
- 1:19:19Speaker 6: and stuff like that. So it's, it's really great to
- 1:19:21Speaker 6: be in a place, um, watching awesome classic cinema in, um, yeah. And,
- 1:19:29Speaker 6: you know, especially like traveling and stuff like that, like
- 1:19:32Speaker 6: in the early two thousands, when I went to Austin
- 1:19:34Speaker 6: for the first time, like, and saw how they, ran
- 1:19:37Speaker 6: the original Alamo Drafthouse. And I was just like, fuck, like,
- 1:19:41Speaker 6: why don't we have anything like that in Atlanta?
- 1:19:43Speaker 7: I think every time I go somewhere.
- 1:19:44Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 1:19:44Speaker 6: And it was like, they were trying to, you know,
- 1:19:47Speaker 6: piece together stuff like that at the Plaza occasionally, but
- 1:19:49Speaker 6: it kept kind of falling on hard times, either by.
- 1:19:52Speaker 2: Ownership or, you know, like tough place to keep running.
- 1:19:55Speaker 2: It's a big, it's a big expensive place. You really
- 1:19:58Speaker 2: got to put some time into it and some money
- 1:20:00Speaker 2: into it to make it work.
- 1:20:01Speaker 6: And they didn't have enough money to run it like
- 1:20:03Speaker 6: a traditional theater that had to be repertory. And yeah, Yeah,
- 1:20:07Speaker 6: so luckily we're getting to show these really great movies there,
- 1:20:11Speaker 6: and they're doing well, and we're very happy about that.
- 1:20:16Speaker 7: Well, this one, the only other thing I was going
- 1:20:18Speaker 7: to tie in was, because it's so amazing to watch
- 1:20:21Speaker 7: the crazy set pieces and the stunt work, you also
- 1:20:25Speaker 7: get hit with, again, if you're not schooled in the
- 1:20:28Speaker 7: way that he does his films, how He's also so
- 1:20:32Speaker 7: focused on the slapstick, the phone gags, and then the
- 1:20:36Speaker 7: cake gag that continues to run. Does that fit?
- 1:20:40Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 1:20:40Speaker 7: I was trying to decide. The phone's pretty impressive, but
- 1:20:43Speaker 7: the cake thing just kept going. I'm like, I get it.
- 1:20:47Speaker 7: It's funny.
- 1:20:48Speaker 2: I think it adds to the likability of his character.
- 1:20:50Speaker 2: You can't see Clint Eastwood ever getting up high in
- 1:20:52Speaker 2: the face three times in the span of, what, ten
- 1:20:54Speaker 2: minutes or whatever. And I think the gags also work
- 1:20:57Speaker 2: in that movie because you've got Bridget Lynn, who's one
- 1:21:00Speaker 2: of my favorite Hong Kong actresses and she does you
- 1:21:03Speaker 2: know and it's a pretty interesting role for her because
- 1:21:06Speaker 2: she's mostly like a kind of a martial arts kung
- 1:21:09Speaker 2: fu you know she's a star in a lot of
- 1:21:11Speaker 2: like fantasy wuxia kind of things and generally plays like
- 1:21:16Speaker 2: a either a man or androgynous character so it's really
- 1:21:18Speaker 2: interesting to see her playing she's kind of.
- 1:21:21Speaker 7: Feminine role feminine role and then the girlfriend and.
- 1:21:23Speaker 2: Then you've got Maggie Chung who's a huge you know
- 1:21:26Speaker 2: international star but but it's one of her early roles
- 1:21:29Speaker 2: and she's kind of limited into this like howdy sort
- 1:21:32Speaker 2: of character, but there's a likability to her too.
- 1:21:35Speaker 7: And there's a moment when I'm like, wait, you've got
- 1:21:38Speaker 7: people trying to kill everyone around you and you invite
- 1:21:41Speaker 7: your girlfriend to come with you. That seemed like a
- 1:21:44Speaker 7: questionable call. Like she's going to come hang out at
- 1:21:46Speaker 7: the mall with you. Really?
- 1:21:48Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 1:21:48Speaker 2: I don't, that tie into why she was there. It
- 1:21:51Speaker 2: doesn't totally make sense. Like Bridget Lynn, they really quickly
- 1:21:54Speaker 2: kind of, show her getting she's trying to steal some
- 1:21:57Speaker 2: information or whatever but why maggie chung ends up there
- 1:22:00Speaker 2: at that exact moment too is a little they were
- 1:22:03Speaker 2: going to hey yeah it's a little straight.
- 1:22:06Speaker 7: I guess the other i mean to to we can
- 1:22:09Speaker 7: round out with the big finale i mean that the
- 1:22:11Speaker 7: the mall chase and fight and everything about it i
- 1:22:15Speaker 7: mean before we get to the the jump with the
- 1:22:16Speaker 7: lights yeah I was like, I'm watching it going, are
- 1:22:19Speaker 7: these guys getting paid by per pane of glass they break?
- 1:22:22Speaker 7: That's the only way this would come out ahead. Cause
- 1:22:25Speaker 7: that is so much glass.
- 1:22:27Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 1:22:27Speaker 7: It is amazing.
- 1:22:29Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
- 1:22:30Speaker 7: And it's, I'm again, I'm assuming they're not using safety glass.
- 1:22:34Speaker 7: There's no, it seemed like it was, I see.
- 1:22:37Speaker 2: I mean, I doubt they could replace all that stuff
- 1:22:41Speaker 2: with safety glass.
- 1:22:42Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 1:22:42Speaker 2: I was actually talking to my girlfriend about that last
- 1:22:44Speaker 2: night and we were kind of going through that. And, uh,
- 1:22:47Speaker 2: She's like, well, it's got to be safety glass, but
- 1:22:48Speaker 2: it's all these cabinets and.
- 1:22:50Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 1:22:50Speaker 2: It's stuff that would be in the mall already that
- 1:22:53Speaker 2: they destroyed, you know?
- 1:22:54Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 1:22:55Speaker 2: So, I can't imagine that that.
- 1:22:57Speaker 7: I don't know.
- 1:22:57Speaker 2: I'm not a stuntman.
- 1:22:58Speaker 6: I'm not... I mean, I listened to the... Yeah. Like,
- 1:23:01Speaker 6: a little kind of talk that he was giving about
- 1:23:03Speaker 6: his experience in the film. Like, a short, very short one.
- 1:23:07Speaker 6: And he was talking... He kept saying candy glass, like,
- 1:23:09Speaker 6: over and over again. But, I mean, you know, candy glass... breakaway,
- 1:23:14Speaker 6: whatever you want to call it. It's still dangerous. In
- 1:23:16Speaker 6: Dawn of the Dead, Tom Savini was almost decapitated because
- 1:23:20Speaker 6: he rides his motorcycle through a sheet and they poured
- 1:23:22Speaker 6: it too thick. You can literally see when he goes
- 1:23:25Speaker 6: through it, it's like the bottom breaks and then the
- 1:23:28Speaker 6: top goes ka-chunk and just hits the floor. If you
- 1:23:33Speaker 6: don't have a lot of time, you can still get
- 1:23:36Speaker 6: hurt from that stuff.
- 1:23:38Speaker 7: Romero skating by.
- 1:23:40Speaker 2: Trying to make his movie.
- 1:23:43Speaker 6: In a mall.
- 1:23:43Speaker 7: You know, that's where you make your finest films in
- 1:23:47Speaker 7: the mall.
- 1:23:48Speaker 2: Absolutely.
- 1:23:49Speaker 4: I'll get you out of this mess.
- 1:23:50Speaker 7: I promise you. Take Dan to a cell.
- 1:23:54Speaker 3: Yes, sir.
- 1:23:55Speaker 9: Charge him with murder.
- 1:24:05Speaker 2: Don't move. Jackie, don't do it.
- 1:24:09Speaker 7: I didn't kill anybody. So why are you charging me
- 1:24:13Speaker 7: with murder?
- 1:24:14Speaker 5: I have no choice.
- 1:24:15Speaker 2: I have to charge you according to the evidence in
- 1:24:17Speaker 2: front of me.
- 1:24:18Speaker 7: You know damn well true frame me. What is the problem?
- 1:24:21Speaker 3: It's obvious.
- 1:24:22Speaker 2: I can't make arbitrary decisions.
- 1:24:25Speaker 5: Don't give me that bullshit.
- 1:24:26Speaker 7: Jackie, leave him alone. You coward. Jackie, he's your superior.
- 1:24:33Speaker 7: He doesn't deserve to be.
- 1:24:35Speaker 5: Where was he when we were out there, sitting at
- 1:24:37Speaker 5: his desk reading the paper? When we arrested the suspect,
- 1:24:40Speaker 5: he argued about procedures. And that cockeyed plan, arranging for
- 1:24:44Speaker 5: me to protect the witness.
- 1:24:46Speaker 9: A waste of time.
- 1:24:48Speaker 5: Everything he's done has resulted in problems.
- 1:24:51Speaker 11: Get back, I say!
- 1:24:53Speaker 7: All you think about is your promotion. You don't give
- 1:24:55Speaker 7: a damn about us!
- 1:24:58Speaker 10: If one of our guys is killed, all it means
- 1:25:00Speaker 10: to you is a three-page report.
- 1:25:03Speaker 7: You don't consider us as human. But if we weren't
- 1:25:06Speaker 7: fighting for you out there, you.
- 1:25:07Speaker 2: Wouldn't even have an office!
- 1:25:09Speaker 6: Jackie!
- 1:25:09Speaker 8: Get back!
- 1:25:10Speaker 7: Get back! Keep away, or I'll blow his head off! Jackie,
- 1:25:15Speaker 7: don't do this! I do also, we get our... Like,
- 1:25:19Speaker 7: there's barely any crossover into not comedy or action. His, like,
- 1:25:24Speaker 7: Oscar clip of, like, you know, talking about the upper...
- 1:25:28Speaker 7: the brass. It's like, it does need the little, you know,
- 1:25:32Speaker 7: shout out the Wayne's world is the clip, you know,
- 1:25:34Speaker 7: flashes at the Oscar clip. It's the one time you
- 1:25:38Speaker 7: feel like he's really trying.
- 1:25:40Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely.
- 1:25:42Speaker 9: Yeah.
- 1:25:43Speaker 7: Well, is there anything else? We've kind of hit the
- 1:25:46Speaker 7: basics there. Anything else you want to throw out on
- 1:25:49Speaker 7: this one?
- 1:25:50Speaker 2: I mean, I don't want to ruin it too much
- 1:25:51Speaker 2: for people. I don't know how people go back and
- 1:25:53Speaker 2: explore that. I mean, that, I would, that's, that movie's
- 1:25:57Speaker 2: the 80s, but I kind of lump it in with
- 1:25:59Speaker 2: 90s Hong Kong cinema.
- 1:26:00Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely.
- 1:26:02Speaker 2: And I would say if you, if you haven't explored
- 1:26:04Speaker 2: that genre, like there's, I mean, from John Woo to,
- 1:26:07Speaker 2: like I said, I think I talked about Ring of
- 1:26:09Speaker 2: the Lamb earlier.
- 1:26:10Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 1:26:10Speaker 2: There's so many great, um, Johnny Toe kind of picked
- 1:26:14Speaker 2: it up like later in the 80s and into the 90s.
- 1:26:17Speaker 2: I mean, later in the mid 90s to into the 2000s. And, um,
- 1:26:21Speaker 2: I don't know, there's so many great films from that time.
- 1:26:24Speaker 6: Yeah. Um, Absolutely. I highly recommend Yes, Madam.
- 1:26:29Speaker 2: Yes, Madam's great. The later, the Wheels on Meals, like
- 1:26:34Speaker 2: Dragons Forever, like the Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan, when he
- 1:26:39Speaker 2: worked with Sammo Hung and Yen Biao, they were like
- 1:26:41Speaker 2: a Three Amigos kind of thing. Those movies are really
- 1:26:44Speaker 2: entertaining if you're into just the fun stuff. If you
- 1:26:46Speaker 2: want to get into the more heroic bloodshed type stuff,
- 1:26:51Speaker 2: I really recommend, let's see, The John Woo stuff, obviously
- 1:26:55Speaker 2: killer and hard-boiled, but My Heart is an Eternal Rose
- 1:26:59Speaker 2: is a really good title. Better Tomorrow. Better Tomorrow. Beyond Hypothermia.
- 1:27:05Speaker 2: Longest Night is an early Johnny Toe produced thing. And
- 1:27:07Speaker 2: then the later Johnny Toes. Exiled, I really like.
- 1:27:13Speaker 7: Election.
- 1:27:14Speaker 2: Yeah, Election's great. I don't know, that's... It's a great...
- 1:27:19Speaker 2: It's something to really get into. And then it can
- 1:27:22Speaker 2: kind of lead you to the Wong Kar Wai stuff,
- 1:27:23Speaker 2: which has.
- 1:27:26Speaker 2: Bridget Lin and Maggie Chung were in some Wong Kar
- 1:27:28Speaker 2: Wai movies. And I think Wong Kar Wai played off
- 1:27:33Speaker 2: some of those characters, but showed you a whole other
- 1:27:36Speaker 2: artistic side of Hong Kong moviemaking that if you're less
- 1:27:42Speaker 2: into the genre stuff.
- 1:27:44Speaker 6: You can appreciate that too. Yeah, you can watch drama like...
- 1:27:47Speaker 6: Ashes of Time or something like that, which is fucking masterful.
- 1:27:52Speaker 2: Bridget Lynn and Maggie Chan both are from it.
- 1:27:54Speaker 6: And for those of you out there listening, if you're
- 1:27:56Speaker 6: having a tough time locating something either on disc or streaming,
- 1:28:03Speaker 6: there are a ton of incredible international action movies on YouTube,
- 1:28:09Speaker 6: strangely enough, a lot of times uncut. So if you
- 1:28:12Speaker 6: really just can't find something, look up the title and
- 1:28:16Speaker 6: uh i'm sure you can i've that was actually how
- 1:28:18Speaker 6: i first watched all of yes madam.
- 1:28:21Speaker 2: Like uncut was on youtube so or if you're a
- 1:28:23Speaker 2: collector we're um hong kong blu-rays are region a so
- 1:28:27Speaker 2: yeah they they work in our players so um they're
- 1:28:31Speaker 2: not cheap but if you go on ebay there's plenty
- 1:28:33Speaker 2: of Asian sellers selling Hong Kong movies. All those movies
- 1:28:39Speaker 2: have been remastered. I've got a pretty healthy collection at home.
- 1:28:44Speaker 6: We promise that you've never, ever seen anything like it
- 1:28:47Speaker 6: if you have not watched it before.
- 1:28:50Speaker 7: That's what I was going to ask. We're kind of
- 1:28:52Speaker 7: in that heyday, in the golden era of him. What
- 1:28:55Speaker 7: do you think of older Jackie Chan? Like post-Rumble in
- 1:28:58Speaker 7: the Bronx. Americanized Jackie.
- 1:29:01Speaker 2: The tuxedo. Yeah, Rush Hour kind of lost me a
- 1:29:07Speaker 2: little bit. That kind of stuff. I mean, obviously there's
- 1:29:10Speaker 2: good moments in those movies or whatever, but I think
- 1:29:13Speaker 2: I was a little too old to enjoy that stuff.
- 1:29:18Speaker 6: The first thing I ever saw from him, my dad
- 1:29:21Speaker 6: loved action cinema and we would go see whatever new
- 1:29:25Speaker 6: Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal or Sylvester Stallone movie
- 1:29:28Speaker 6: came out, and I remember basically, like, because he was
- 1:29:32Speaker 6: such a big fan, yeah, right when Rumble in the
- 1:29:36Speaker 6: Bronx came out, it was such a big thing for
- 1:29:38Speaker 6: New Line because you had people like Wesley Snipes, Sylvester Stallone,
- 1:29:41Speaker 6: and Schwarzenegger all being like, no, Jack James is the man. Like,
- 1:29:44Speaker 6: you gotta go watch this. So they had a good
- 1:29:46Speaker 6: property on their hands. Obviously they recut it and dubbed it,
- 1:29:48Speaker 6: and it was filmed in like Toronto or Vancouver or something,
- 1:29:51Speaker 6: not New York.
- 1:29:52Speaker 7: You know, the Bronx.
- 1:29:52Speaker 6: Yeah. But anyways, it's a fucking great film. Um, that
- 1:29:57Speaker 6: was honestly my starting point, my entry point for him. Um,
- 1:30:01Speaker 6: and then, uh, you know, I can't remember. I, I
- 1:30:04Speaker 6: feel like I saw some other like, um, mid nineties,
- 1:30:08Speaker 6: Jackie Chan stuff. It wasn't as impressive. And I honestly,
- 1:30:12Speaker 6: as a teenager, sort of forgot about it. But then
- 1:30:14Speaker 6: when I started working here, um.
- 1:30:16Speaker 2: Yeah, Condor and project a, and some of those, that's
- 1:30:20Speaker 2: the real, those, that's the Jackie Chan stuff. It's, and,
- 1:30:24Speaker 2: I will say this about Police Story. Police Story, I think,
- 1:30:25Speaker 2: is still... It retained... It was the only movie that
- 1:30:29Speaker 2: was always called Police Story. Like, Jackie Chan movies have... Like,
- 1:30:33Speaker 2: we would get Operation Condor 2, and it would be
- 1:30:36Speaker 2: released here as Operation Condor. I think Suncoast was kind
- 1:30:38Speaker 2: of one of the culprits of all this kind of stuff.
- 1:30:40Speaker 7: Probably, because they never knew what they were getting on
- 1:30:42Speaker 7: that end anyway.
- 1:30:43Speaker 2: So, like, or we get... Drunken Master 2, but it
- 1:30:46Speaker 2: was called Drunken Master here. There was this total mix-up
- 1:30:50Speaker 2: of titles and names, but Police Story was always Police Story.
- 1:30:53Speaker 2: You'd always be like, it's a touchdown, Police Story. I
- 1:30:57Speaker 2: think it really helped that for its popularity. Really, I
- 1:31:02Speaker 2: think First Strike is Police Story 4, right?
- 1:31:06Speaker 7: I think.
- 1:31:07Speaker 2: And then Police Story 3 was Supercop here, which has
- 1:31:12Speaker 2: some amazing stunts in it, but it's not an overall Yeah,
- 1:31:16Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, it's a little... It's got
- 1:31:19Speaker 2: some weak spots, too. But it's got Michelle Yeoh, and
- 1:31:21Speaker 2: she does some crazy motorcycle stunts in it, and it's
- 1:31:26Speaker 2: fun and worth seeing. There's also the case of, like,
- 1:31:29Speaker 2: seeing a movie dubbed versus seeing a movie subtitled, and
- 1:31:32Speaker 2: some movie people enjoy Police Story more dubbed. Like, they
- 1:31:35Speaker 2: think it's funnier that way, and I can kind of
- 1:31:38Speaker 2: see that. I mean, we.
- 1:31:40Speaker 2: We've shown some that Indonesian movie that was dubbed at
- 1:31:43Speaker 2: the Plaza and it worked better dubbed for us, honestly.
- 1:31:46Speaker 2: And like, and it was more in with a crowd
- 1:31:50Speaker 2: and I've seen police story, both dubbed and subtitled. And
- 1:31:52Speaker 2: I kind of, I take it a lot more seriously
- 1:31:55Speaker 2: when it's subtitled, but it is, it's fun either way.
- 1:31:57Speaker 6: I think. Yeah. Um, yeah, there's definitely some, uh, when we, um, showed, um, um, the, uh,
- 1:32:04Speaker 6: Ruggiero Diodato, um, warriors slash road, Oh, the.
- 1:32:09Speaker 2: One you guys showed at the other place.
- 1:32:11Speaker 6: Yeah, God, why can I not remember the name?
- 1:32:12Speaker 2: It was in 1990's Bronx Warriors.
- 1:32:15Speaker 6: No, no, it's something of Atlantis. Like, Raiders. Raiders of Atlantis.
- 1:32:22Speaker 7: Yeah, I know that time.
- 1:32:23Speaker 2: Thankfully, I haven't seen that.
- 1:32:25Speaker 6: It's really great, actually.
- 1:32:26Speaker 7: I've seen pieces of it. It's disturbing.
- 1:32:27Speaker 6: It's really great, and it's really fun, but that's a
- 1:32:30Speaker 6: perfect example of, like, it's hilarious dubbed. Like, it's really,
- 1:32:36Speaker 6: and that was super... engaging for the audience and they
- 1:32:39Speaker 6: were cracking up like immediately from the get go because
- 1:32:41Speaker 6: the English dialogue is ridiculous like it doesn't make any
- 1:32:45Speaker 6: sense so it can kind.
- 1:32:47Speaker 2: Of add to it even with the tough ones like
- 1:32:49Speaker 2: we showed a Titan crime film called Umberto Lindsay the
- 1:32:55Speaker 2: cannibal holocaust director.
- 1:32:57Speaker 6: Oh no he did Cannibal Ferox.
- 1:33:01Speaker 2: Yeah so we showed the tough ones a few weeks
- 1:33:05Speaker 2: ago and it was a Pretty fun screening, but it
- 1:33:07Speaker 2: was dubbed and no one cared. Yeah, it was great.
- 1:33:11Speaker 2: I mean, I think as a crowd, the dubbing works
- 1:33:14Speaker 2: pretty well.
- 1:33:15Speaker 6: Whereas something like Suspiria, for any listeners out there, if
- 1:33:19Speaker 6: you've only seen that dubbed, you're bad. I highly recommend
- 1:33:23Speaker 6: you watch that movie in Italian. I know that the
- 1:33:27Speaker 6: whole thing about how a lot of times they would
- 1:33:28Speaker 6: shoot with no sound.
- 1:33:30Speaker 2: And they're dubbing it.
- 1:33:31Speaker 6: And they're dubbing in their own languages, blah, blah. But
- 1:33:33Speaker 6: it was written in Italian. And having watched it in
- 1:33:36Speaker 6: English and then watched it in Italian, it is a masterful,
- 1:33:39Speaker 6: beautiful film in Italian. And it's ridiculous and kind of
- 1:33:44Speaker 6: silly in English. So, anyways.
- 1:33:46Speaker 2: Or you can watch the new 4K Restoration Deep Red, actually.
- 1:33:50Speaker 2: To get the best quality, they mixed a subtitle and
- 1:33:54Speaker 2: a dub print. And it goes scene to scene. It
- 1:33:56Speaker 2: goes in and out. And it's really kind of a
- 1:33:59Speaker 2: jarring thing to see in a theater like this. because
- 1:34:02Speaker 2: you're seeing the same characters speak two different ways with
- 1:34:04Speaker 2: two different voices, but it's the, it's, they wanted to
- 1:34:07Speaker 2: make the best quality presentation. But I've never seen them.
- 1:34:12Speaker 2: I never had that experience actually until seeing that last
- 1:34:14Speaker 2: year that, that new, but the new restoration is beautiful.
- 1:34:17Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 1:34:18Speaker 2: Also Argentine.
- 1:34:19Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 1:34:20Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 1:34:20Speaker 6: There's a lot of foreign movies that, uh, I felt
- 1:34:24Speaker 6: like I was seeing for the first time, uh, watching
- 1:34:26Speaker 6: it in the original language. I mean, It's like, duh.
- 1:34:30Speaker 2: But a lot of times they add scenes when you
- 1:34:32Speaker 2: see it. You get a longer cut when you see
- 1:34:34Speaker 2: the subtitle.
- 1:34:35Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely.
- 1:34:37Speaker 7: And those are the kind of things you can get here.
- 1:34:39Speaker 7: At Video Girl. As we round out, yeah, tell people
- 1:34:42Speaker 7: to come. So once again, you say social media is
- 1:34:46Speaker 7: the best place for everybody to get on board and
- 1:34:48Speaker 7: find you.
- 1:34:48Speaker 2: If you're not in Atlanta and you're not already a
- 1:34:50Speaker 2: part of our thing, you can totally interact with us
- 1:34:52Speaker 2: on Twitter and Instagram.
- 1:34:54Speaker 6: You can be a part of our thing.
- 1:34:56Speaker 7: Or even if you are in Atlanta.
- 1:34:57Speaker 2: You can buy a t-shirt.
- 1:34:59Speaker 7: And you're oblivious.
- 1:35:00Speaker 6: You can buy a hat.
- 1:35:01Speaker 7: Again, if nothing else, I think the person I brought
- 1:35:03Speaker 7: with me today is now completely suckered in and is
- 1:35:06Speaker 7: already picking out, like, walls full of things to take.
- 1:35:08Speaker 2: She already got four movies. Yeah, I know.
- 1:35:10Speaker 7: And so, if nothing else, you live in the city
- 1:35:13Speaker 7: and you still don't know what's right around the corner.
- 1:35:15Speaker 6: How many movies do we have?
- 1:35:17Speaker 2: We have about 25,000 DVDs and we're getting into the 50s.
- 1:35:23Speaker 2: Close to the 5,000 Blu-ray range, which is really.
- 1:35:26Speaker 6: 30,000-something movies and a bunch that are not on the interwebs, kids.
- 1:35:32Speaker 6: Not everything's on the internet. This is where you have
- 1:35:34Speaker 6: to come.
- 1:35:34Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's what people don't realize is how
- 1:35:36Speaker 2: much they're missing in the foreign and arthouse world that
- 1:35:40Speaker 2: just gets lost. Especially... Things just fall through the cracks
- 1:35:45Speaker 2: in this new streaming era.
- 1:35:46Speaker 6: Yeah, especially as they all try to fight tooth and
- 1:35:50Speaker 6: nail with Disney where... It's interesting because Netflix changed the game,
- 1:35:58Speaker 6: but they are kind of reigning in a new studio
- 1:36:02Speaker 6: era where instead of Warner Brothers, Paramount, and whatever, you're
- 1:36:07Speaker 6: going to have Netflix and Disney and Amazon.
- 1:36:10Speaker 2: You can afford 10 streaming sites. I mean, that's bigger
- 1:36:15Speaker 2: than your cable.
- 1:36:16Speaker 6: Bill, really.
- 1:36:17Speaker 2: Or in the... If you want to afford cable and
- 1:36:20Speaker 2: internet and the streaming sites you're dealing with.
- 1:36:23Speaker 7: That became the plan. I'm going to get rid of
- 1:36:25Speaker 7: cable and just get Netflix and it's going to be cheaper.
- 1:36:29Speaker 7: By the time you get these five, it's right back
- 1:36:30Speaker 7: to what.
- 1:36:31Speaker 6: You were getting for cable. They all control their vaults.
- 1:36:36Speaker 7: They're doing original content. If you want to see everything,
- 1:36:39Speaker 7: you have to buy every streaming service. It's out of control.
- 1:36:44Speaker 7: Just rent movies from here.
- 1:36:46Speaker 6: Exactly. All right.
- 1:36:48Speaker 7: Well, thank you guys for doing this. And yeah, it's
- 1:36:51Speaker 7: been a lot of fun. And definitely everybody come find
- 1:36:53Speaker 7: them online and come here and rent movies.
- 1:36:55Speaker 2: That's right.
- 1:36:56Speaker 6: Yeah. Support your local video store.
- 1:36:58Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 1:36:58Speaker 6: If there's one.
- 1:36:59Speaker 7: Go find it in your area. In your city.
- 1:37:01Speaker 2: It's still around. Go start one.
- 1:37:03Speaker 6: Exactly. You can start a video club. There's nothing.
- 1:37:06Speaker 2: I just got a call last week from a guy
- 1:37:07Speaker 2: who wants to start one in New Orleans, actually.
- 1:37:09Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 1:37:09Speaker 7: See, it's in your hands, people. We can bring this back.
- 1:37:12Speaker 11: Yeah.
- 1:37:12Speaker 3: All right.
- 1:37:14Speaker 7: Well, otherwise, that about does it. We will return next time.
- 1:37:16Speaker 7: Same Geek Feed. Thanks for listening.
- 1:37:30Speaker 10: Tung Chi Mo, Nang Han Chi, Ping Chut Yat Sang Chi,
- 1:37:36Speaker 10: Lau Han Hu, Chin Chek Sim, Chui Cham Da Yi Yi,
- 1:37:43Speaker 10: Sang Ming, Chok To Chu, Lau Ha Niu, Ying Hong
- 1:37:47Speaker 10: Gu Si, You Huat, Kien Kuk He, Ong Bu, Ku Pan,
- 1:37:53Speaker 10: Chi Sing Si, Tung, Chen, Hu, All of them are true,
- 1:37:59Speaker 10: I know it.
- 1:38:01Speaker 11: With all my heart.
- 1:38:04Speaker 7: I want to write it down. I know it.
- 1:38:22Speaker 10: Thank you. I write my life's story with my weapon
- 1:38:30Speaker 10: Love with love is like a true story Life goes on,
- 1:38:37Speaker 10: and it's amazing to stay Heroes have bones, and the
- 1:38:44Speaker 10: world is like a poem From the beginning to the end,
- 1:38:50Speaker 10: freedom and loyalty are all I have.
- 1:38:53Speaker 3: Qua!
- 1:38:54Speaker 6: Bo!
- 1:38:55Speaker 3: So!
- 1:38:56Speaker 7: Qua!
- 1:38:56Speaker 6: Bo!
- 1:38:56Speaker 10: So!
- 1:39:24Speaker 3: Thank you.
- 1:40:06Speaker 6: Hi, I'm Jeff.
- 1:40:07Speaker 9: You look like you could use some help. Yeah, hi.
- 1:40:10Speaker 9: My wife sent me in for a movie and I
- 1:40:12Speaker 9: can't remember the name.
- 1:40:13Speaker 6: That's tough. Good luck.
- 1:40:16Speaker 4: This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and
- 1:40:18Speaker 4: edited by The Oddity Studios, with the opening music performed
- 1:40:22Speaker 4: by The Empires. For more on how to sponsor or
- 1:40:24Speaker 4: support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com.
- 1:40:27Speaker 6: Talk hard!
- 1:40:34Speaker 7: This program is a proud member of the battleship pretension fleet.