Latest / Citizen Frame / Con Air
Transcript
- 0:00Well-known and often lamented facts of penal lore.
- 0:05What I'm wondering is why you have any opinion about it at all.
- 0:08Cyrus, this is your barbecue, man, and it tastes good. But I was just saying to Mr.
- 0:13Dog over here that if it was my barbecue, I'd wait for that old jumbo jet in
- 0:17the sky before I start killing the only leverage.
- 0:19Shut the fuck up. Don't you want to get high and get laid?
- 0:22Shit. Oh, fuck this. Put the gun down.
- 0:25Put the gun down, Nathan.
- 0:28Pose right. We're going to plan B. Going to get a refueling truck and tractor.
- 0:34So get back there and dig the plane out. Hi, folks. Welcome back to another
- 0:37exciting episode of Citizen's Frame.
- 0:38I'm your charming, charming host, Kieran.
- 0:41And we just wrapped up an exciting shark month and did quite well.
- 0:47So we thank you for all the downloads and all the listeners who appreciated
- 0:50our creature feature retrospective.
- 0:54And we are going to be jumping into Final Destinations coming here soon.
- 0:58I think we keep delaying it but that's because we're unorganized but we wanted
- 1:04to pepper some action films I think,
- 1:06just because we're coming up to Halloween month and we got Final Destinations
- 1:11to do and then we just did Shark Month which is primarily horror films so we gotta break you know.
- 1:18Break the cycle there. Shake things up a bit. Yeah, so we always talk about 80s.
- 1:24We always talk about our 80s cheese, and I love my 80s cheese.
- 1:27But kind of like music, you had
- 1:29the 80s hairband, rock, which was kind of cheese, but good, but cheese.
- 1:34And then 90s, you got good music, but it became a little darker,
- 1:38a little edgier. It's kind of what happened with action films.
- 1:42We had Chuck Norris. We had the Cobras.
- 1:46We have the Van Damme's, the Steven Seagal's, who now seem to transition to
- 1:51where you had, and not to take away from Van Damme and the gang,
- 1:57they're good at what they do, but the cast and the budgets skyrocketed.
- 2:06You had distinguished Oscar-nominated or if not Oscar-winning actors taken on the roles.
- 2:15And then you quadrupled the budget. Stunts became more advanced.
- 2:21And you had a little boy called Jerry Bruckheimer. Another boy called Joel Silver
- 2:26who kind of catapulted action to the new era.
- 2:32And it wasn't cheese anymore. there's more flair more like I don't know,
- 2:38upscale flair well I would say
- 2:41upscale cheese I wouldn't say cheese
- 2:44at all I know there is definitely but that's not me that's me saying that affectionately
- 2:51you know but there's this film we're about to do this is a pure 90's cheese
- 2:57fest but I absolutely love it at the same time but I do agree that yes definitely
- 3:02things were in terms of budget,
- 3:04bigger actors attracted, that sort of thing. Yeah.
- 3:08I don't call it cheese. The reason I say I don't call it cheese is because of
- 3:13the reasons we just mentioned.
- 3:15Back in the 80s, you're limited to what you can do, especially with budgets.
- 3:21And the advance in technology when it comes to stunts.
- 3:25I mean, Jesus, there are guns for hire in the 80s, some of these directors.
- 3:28We talked about that with Cobra.
- 3:30I enjoyed the fucking film. It was terrible.
- 3:32But you even mentioned it was A-team shooting. So you have a guy jumping in
- 3:37the air before the explosion even happens, and they didn't have time to do a
- 3:42second take or they couldn't afford to do a second take.
- 3:44Well, this is more crafted.
- 3:47This is more take another shot from different angles.
- 3:51And that's what you got from the Bruckheimer and Silver.
- 3:54I hate saying it. I don't like saying the word because I do like my cheese,
- 3:58but there's a lot more professionalism behind the lens.
- 4:00Yeah, I mean, it's much more polished. I would certainly agree with that.
- 4:03But that's why it's not cheese.
- 4:05You're confusing cheese with story.
- 4:07I think that's the difference. The story here is crazy, but that doesn't make it cheese.
- 4:13It's the execution that makes a film cheesy.
- 4:17I think there are different brands of cheese, certainly, in terms of a cheese fest.
- 4:23You know it takes different types of cheese including back in the 80s you know
- 4:27you had you know the dodgy acting.
- 4:30Stunts the A team type shootouts and stuff
- 4:33but I would say here certainly at least with Conor this is a team in many parts
- 4:40but on a big budget if that makes sense no I completely disagree I'm much more
- 4:46slickly done well your cheese is Swiss because your theory is full of holes No,
- 4:52no, my cheese is very refined.
- 4:56No, you're not getting the definition of cheese, but that's all right. That's my definition.
- 5:02You're simple. No, you're a fucking knobhead.
- 5:07Wow. I make a nice little banter, good joke, trying to be professional,
- 5:11and you attack me? I would never do that to you.
- 5:14I would never do that to you. No, you do it to me every week,
- 5:16every day, practically on text, and across different forms of media.
- 5:20But anyway, I can take it.
- 5:23You know, I'm a bit like Cameron Poe, actually. You know what I mean? I just get on with it.
- 5:28No, you're not even close to Cameron Poe. You're the guy in the dress.
- 5:32You're fucking. You're Sally Can't Dance. Sally Can't Dance is great.
- 5:38All right. Yeah, we're here to talk Amistad. What?
- 5:44Amistad, no. It's a joke. We're here to talk Con Air. Con Air.
- 5:49We got our boy behind the helm, Simon West. I like Simon West.
- 5:53Kind of disappeared. There's a lot of TV now. But he's got a pretty good track
- 5:56record. The original Tomb Raider. The Expendables 2, which is kind of the best one. The Mechanic.
- 6:01A cool little Chinese film he did called Skyfire. It's a volcano film.
- 6:07It's pretty good. You got to check it out.
- 6:09With Jason Isaac is in it. A new retelling of When a Stranger Calls.
- 6:13Actually pretty fair. And The General's Daughter. very
- 6:17dark edgy crime thriller set in the military base
- 6:19with john devolta yeah well this film big budget 75 million made 225 worldwide
- 6:26it's beloved everyone likes it i love it we all like our con air we're watching
- 6:31again i'm gonna be honest with you it dropped some pegs for me and we'll see
- 6:36why as we dig a little deeper,
- 6:39Before we start, I want to give a little shout-out to Phil Swartz. He's an effects man.
- 6:44He was on the set. The poor man was killed. That's right. On the set by a plane falling on him. Yeah.
- 6:53Some poor guy. And so give him a little shout-out there. Go to show you.
- 6:59And there's another one who was killed on another Bruckheimer set.
- 7:05But it's what it is. and
- 7:08uh let's dive into it the film was actually dedicated to
- 7:11him as well yeah of course it should be yeah jerry
- 7:15brockheimer let's start with him yeah fucking love jerry brockheimer fucking
- 7:18love jerry brockheimer there's two guys called don
- 7:21simpson and jerry brockheimer they kind of started out in the early early 80s
- 7:26i want to say they did 48 hours i think they did but their claim to fame was
- 7:31two big hits which would have been bevelies cop and flash dance yeah that kind
- 7:35of cat top gun All three of those came out around the same time.
- 7:39And if you look at Top Gun, and if you look at Belly O's Cop 2,
- 7:44and then if you look at Days of Thunder, you can see the transition of the action film,
- 7:51getting a little more smarter, a little more quicker, edgier cameras.
- 7:55They worked with Tony Scott a lot, who was the king of that.
- 8:00And then eventually Michael Bay would take the reins over.
- 8:04Apparently um tony scott was they actually wanted tony
- 8:07scott to direct this he was their first choice and also you
- 8:10mentioned jason isaacs apparently he was a choice
- 8:13for one of the main roles either cameron poe or possibly sarah savaris i would
- 8:18have to double check that well there you go so yeah so don simpson passed and
- 8:26so it's just brookheimer this is the first film which is just the Bruckheimer banner,
- 8:33not the Simpsons and Bruckheimer. Yeah.
- 8:35The last film that would be would be The Rock. And so...
- 8:39I love Bruckheimer. And I always ask myself this question, and I'll stick by
- 8:44it. Colin Ayer is well-received and loved.
- 8:46So is The Rock. So is Face Out. You know, all these action films, Demolition Man.
- 8:53But yet, Michael Bay gets pissed off. And I never understood that because Michael
- 8:58Bay just went in the same direction as some of the directors I mentioned,
- 9:02including God the Rest of Saul, Tony Scott, one of my favorites.
- 9:06And he just took the helms. and he's a wonderful action director.
- 9:10Guy knows how to take a shot.
- 9:13But I never understood why Conair gets all these praise by everybody,
- 9:16but people who like Conair don't like Michael Bay.
- 9:19And it doesn't make any sense to me because Michael Bay is by far underrated.
- 9:24I don't think Transformers help him. What about McG?
- 9:28I think, well, just go back a bit. I think Michael Bay has a bit of a bad reputation,
- 9:31but to be honest, I have nothing against him personally.
- 9:35His films maybe wouldn't be
- 9:38my you know first choice but you
- 9:41know of none against him what but what about mcgee what do you think of him
- 9:43in terms of action fuck mcgee yeah the guy who did fucking charlie's angels
- 9:49yeah well he he would be along that a similar type banner no he's not even on the not even near yeah.
- 9:59These guys. Not even, he's a poor man's version of the guys we just mentioned.
- 10:04Okay. Not even close. And that's why he doesn't work.
- 10:08Yeah. I don't think he works anymore, does he? I don't know.
- 10:10I honestly don't know. He might be producing. I don't know.
- 10:13I know. Didn't he do one of the, didn't he do Terminator Salvation?
- 10:15He directed it. He did Salvation, I believe.
- 10:19Yeah. Yeah. I like that one though. I did like it. Yeah. I think it's underrated.
- 10:22There's flashes of hope with him, but then he just kind of fell flat.
- 10:26Yeah. Yeah, but no, we got Simon West, Tony Scott, Michael Bay.
- 10:32You had Renee Harlan, and we've talked to him quite a bit here recently.
- 10:36You had these just wonderful directors, and Catherine Bigelow would be up there
- 10:40as well, finding their nets through these kind of action films. Paul Verhoeven as well.
- 10:45Paul Verhoeven, Stuart Baird, who went on. You had Andrew Davis, who did The Fugitive.
- 10:50You had Stuart Baird, who was an editor, who went on to do a wonderful film
- 10:53called The Executive Decision. Yes. And the sequel to A Fugitive,
- 10:57a lot of people didn't see it.
- 10:57I liked it. Called U.S. Marshals. Yeah. Tommy Lee Jones.
- 11:01Yeah. Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Stimes, Robert Downey Jr.
- 11:04But my point is that he had A-listers. Everything was A-listers now.
- 11:12And so this has been the longest since forever. But what the fuck?
- 11:15I don't care. We haven't talked about 90s action. So we got a lot to bring.
- 11:19Yeah. A lot of ice to bring.
- 11:20I mean, with 90s action for me, it's definitely, as we just basically stated
- 11:26there was more money pumped into it essentially,
- 11:29but there's still a certain, you know the 80s is like the prototype for the 90s action,
- 11:37because this here, Connor is basically a remake in terms of all the beats of
- 11:43Die Hard, but with a plane instead of a skyscraper,
- 11:46I do not see that at all Oh no, definitely No, it's not, Die Hard is In terms
- 11:52of the story, this is Die Hard but with a big plane instead of a big skyscraper.
- 11:57No, seriously, I genuinely would say that. That's okay.
- 12:03You don't know anything about Korea. What are you talking about?
- 12:06There's a reluctant hero.
- 12:08No, okay, you can say that about any film. Not really.
- 12:13No, this is very similar. No, this has nothing on top. No, this was not.
- 12:17They weren't going anywhere. Reluctant hero on the inside.
- 12:20And, you know, you're communicating with the cop and stuff. And then the big
- 12:24sort of showdown and stuff, you know, in the streets as opposed to,
- 12:28you know, in the plane or the skyscraper, there's definitely similarities.
- 12:32Let's jump into this before Trevor says anything more stupid.
- 12:35Not stupid at all. Go ahead. Yep.
- 12:38Okay. We got Nicholas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Cole Meany,
- 12:43McKelty Williamson, Nick Chilin, Vig Rames, Dave Chappelle, Ring Tickleton,
- 12:48Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo,
- 12:53MC Ganey, Monica Parder, and Rinaldi Santiago, who plays Trevor's favorite character,
- 12:58Sally Can't Dance. Oh, yes.
- 13:00These people mix up a great bunch of characters called Poe, Agent Larkin,
- 13:04Cyrus, Malloy, Odell, Bedford, Diamond Dog, Pinball, Bishop,
- 13:10Garland Green, Johnny 23, Swamp Thing, Trisha, and Sally Can't Dance.
- 13:14I feel like we're talking about Mad Max characters again.
- 13:17Yeah, I mean, it is a great cast. There's your whole, I mean,
- 13:20it's got a pretty fun cast here.
- 13:22You can't fault it. This is John Cusack's first big outing as an action kind
- 13:27of lead. and then you've got John Malkovich.
- 13:31Well he said this role kind of categorized him a bit but I don't think it did.
- 13:35He did a movie called In the Line of Fire.
- 13:38With Clint but that one was a little more darker a little more real.
- 13:43John Malkovich to me is a very serious actor and he sort of went outside the
- 13:49box with this and good on him.
- 13:51I mean he's hamming it up no end and it's just great fun I would say since John
- 13:58Milkovich took this role he admits it yeah he does a lot of camp now yeah,
- 14:02you look at his catalog a lot of camp yeah where before he did this film you
- 14:08take him over a serious actor when he did this,
- 14:12out of the floodgates. Yeah, a lot of camp. I would say that again,
- 14:16I do love this film but if you had to nitpick and pick holes in maybe things
- 14:21that do let it down a little bit I would say there's possibly too many characters
- 14:26in this and in fact Sarah Zavaris and Diamond Dog played by Ving Rhames are
- 14:31battling to be the main bad guy here but it still,
- 14:35pulls together and it still works but it does sometimes get a bit overload with
- 14:42the characters, I think.
- 14:45Yeah, it's got some writing issues with the characters, especially with Garland
- 14:49Green, the Buscemi character, and it just doesn't make any sense.
- 14:54It should be written out, to
- 14:55be honest with you, and we'll talk about it when we dig a little deeper.
- 14:57Let's start with the reality of him going to prison. This would never happen.
- 15:02He would not do any time. It was clearly self-defense with multiple men attacking him.
- 15:08It has nothing to do with his military. He would not, I've built this,
- 15:12this is just to get him on the plane.
- 15:14He would not have done seven years for defending his wife.
- 15:19Yeah, his pregnant wife. His pregnant wife. Yeah, I know that,
- 15:23but, you know, the film would have ended with five minutes in that bar,
- 15:26so, you know, let's run with it.
- 15:29You know, this isn't, like, serious, factual, it's not a documentary, essentially. So...
- 15:36You get sentenced, and we got the reintroduction to the mullet.
- 15:40Jesus Christ. Well, again, an 80s throwback. You know, you still got that 80s
- 15:44vibe there with the mullet.
- 15:45I would say as well, I absolutely hate the Leanne Rimes song from this film. I think it's horrible.
- 15:52But at the same time, it works here.
- 15:56Because the film is so cheesy and hammy, and it does actually fit here.
- 16:03Again, you're using the words that it's not. yeah
- 16:07wisdom one it's not really cheesy and hammy you've got pretty ugly
- 16:10characters here and but it's in the
- 16:12delivery of them and i'm watching this again
- 16:15and guys i
- 16:18enjoy the film i'm giving you the past fucking you know it's eye candy is all
- 16:22it is to me now but it's definitely brockenheim's worst action film i think
- 16:28yeah it'd be up there because of the characters and the inconsistency with the characters.
- 16:38And the only character that they stick true to is Johnny 23,
- 16:45the Danny Trejo character.
- 16:47He's the only character, and Malloy, and the other heroes, they stay true at
- 16:52all. But I'm talking about the core villains here.
- 16:55It's inconsistent. You have a very ugly character in the Buscemi character.
- 17:01He's playing Garland Green. who kills girls.
- 17:05And then you have this scene where it should have been written out, the little girl.
- 17:11And there's inconsistency with the MC Ganey characters who play Swamp Thing.
- 17:17You have, who's the pilot, you have massive inconsistency with John Malkovich.
- 17:25Well, I think Diamond Dog and Bedford keep, you know, they kind of keep true to who they are.
- 17:32But at the end of the day, these are ugly fucking human beings.
- 17:35Yes. And if you're going to have characters like this, especially the characters
- 17:38I mentioned, this film needed to be darker.
- 17:41But this film is pure pantomime, and it's all about context.
- 17:45I mean, it's a nudge and a wink. They're not, you know what I mean?
- 17:48It's pure pantomime, no doubt about it. regarding the
- 17:52garland green you know the maryland mangler character it's
- 17:56just dark dark humor i mean it's very
- 17:59dark humor and the scene with the little girl that's a weird actual redemption
- 18:04arc for him that's not to me i mean again this film doesn't need redemption
- 18:09arcs all right it doesn't make it you don't need it we're not and when you say
- 18:14dark humor this isn't dark humor it is this is them just playing.
- 18:17No, it's not. No, it's not. This is just not playing for laughs.
- 18:20They try to do something edgy with him seeing the girl. It doesn't work in this kind of film.
- 18:26You've got to pick one genre in this film. You either go batshit crazy or you
- 18:29don't. This isn't Fargo. Fargo is dark comedy.
- 18:33Fargo is dark comedy for Buscemi. This is not. This is definitely dark comedy
- 18:37throughout. No, it's not.
- 18:41This is not the definition of dark comedy. This is not.
- 18:44No, it's not. This is slapstick fun. but done with very dark characters so it
- 18:50is a form of dark comedy well it's not you don't know the definition of dark
- 18:55comedy there's different aspects of dark comedy no there's not,
- 18:58there's an edge and a bite to dark comedies,
- 19:01this does not have that no there is to me but these are,
- 19:07in real world terms these would be like the vilest of vil characters no doubt
- 19:13about that but due to the tone and the context of the way this film is delivered
- 19:18you can't take that seriously because it's a pantomime and a very entertaining one,
- 19:24What Bruckheimer does well and is he always plants the seed.
- 19:31It's literally paid by numbers. And Bruckheimer knows that.
- 19:36And his directors know that. Just basically like, oh, my God,
- 19:41my diabetes are on the plane.
- 19:43Don't worry. We'll get you your insulin once you get on the plane.
- 19:46Oh, my God. There's a private, there's a DEA going on the plane.
- 19:50You can't take your gun. Don't worry. I'll sneak you a gun in.
- 19:53That won't drop up again. yeah exactly yeah they always
- 19:56like you know what's coming right yeah exactly so we're just
- 20:00waiting for the pieces to fall when's the gun gonna come into play when's the
- 20:04insulin gonna break the bunny even the bunny the toy bunny is a plot device
- 20:08as well to a certain extent you know yeah yeah yeah Jesus the bunny's ever supporting
- 20:14role I would say back to what you said earlier about the inconsistency,
- 20:19of characters I would agree that Sarah Zavaris were someone who's supposed to be a criminal genius.
- 20:25He's very stupid at times. You know what I mean? Especially later on.
- 20:31It would have been more clever if, I mean, he would have known right away about Poe. Yeah.
- 20:35And he would have caught that on. He would have caught that.
- 20:38And he would have caught that Chinlin's gone. Yeah, after he kills him.
- 20:44Bradford, whatever his name was. He would have caught this all on.
- 20:48And it would have been better if there was a twist where he knew Poe.
- 20:51He was playing Poe the whole time as Paul was playing him, that would have been better.
- 20:54He definitely should have noticed, you know, whenever they go for essentially
- 20:58the pit stop, the refuel with the swamp things, Christ the Plain,
- 21:02how he didn't notice that Billy Bedlam was missing is stupid for a start because
- 21:09he was almost like one of his right hand men and even when he does realise it,
- 21:15it still takes him a while to work it out.
- 21:18You know? Yeah, we can Nick Pickett, like the six off, the 10 on,
- 21:24that whole sequence. Oh, there's a sandstorm coming. How convenient.
- 21:27It's fine. I go with that. And I actually, I like the fact that it gives a reason
- 21:34for Paul to stay because he's not going to leave his friend behind. Yeah.
- 21:37Who needs the insulin shot. He also is worried for the girl,
- 21:42which, because of the J. Lee 23, who's consistently trying to rape her.
- 21:49Again, pretty ugly stuff to be dealing with with a film that's just so fucking batshit childish.
- 21:55I think it's a fine line to walk in terms of, if you're going to,
- 21:59I mean, they have to raise the ante and have badasses, proper hardasses on the
- 22:04plane for the sake of drama.
- 22:06So at the same time you know
- 22:09it's sort of I don't know
- 22:12I mean so you're making them very dark and really ugly people but at the same
- 22:19time the tone of the film is very sort of pantomime so it's a fine line to walk
- 22:25and I think they just about get it right just about maybe not all times.
- 22:32You know there's a couple of execution scenes
- 22:34I don't like not literally execution i mean the
- 22:38way the scene was portrayed not especially the
- 22:41daa you know for a guy who's badass he
- 22:44gets on the plane he's kind of an idiot for how we handle yeah he's based barely
- 22:48out of as he's getting uncuffed by pinball he's barely out of the cuffs and
- 22:54he grabs the gun and starts oh why would you take a prisoner hostage because
- 23:01that's not going to work.
- 23:02I think he's basically another plot device to get that extra gun on the plane.
- 23:07Yeah, I suppose. Which I did mention earlier. It was blatantly thrown in there. Yeah.
- 23:12And, well, yeah, I mean, it's still fun. I don't want to tear this thing to
- 23:15shreds because I do enjoy it. I do enjoy the film.
- 23:19I just think watching it again, it's the least of my favorites.
- 23:24I do like the character of Swamp thing.
- 23:27Again, a little inconsistency for him. He seems kind of likable,
- 23:31but he's kind of a pig. I guess.
- 23:33I just didn't, you know, I know they're trying to make comic book characters out of him.
- 23:37He's the pilot. He has some good jokes. He has good banter with Poe,
- 23:40even when he knows Poe's the good guy now, especially with the Vegas landing.
- 23:45There's, what's Jesus? We'll get to that. But it just seemed that,
- 23:49What about Malloy? I just think they should. Was that? What about Malloy?
- 23:53Tifu Bran from Star Trek.
- 23:55He's a complete asshole. Yeah, I didn't really. Actually, of all the characters,
- 23:58he has the best arc. He has a redemption arc. Yes, he does. Yeah.
- 24:02Yes, he's the one. The one. But this film isn't about arcs. We don't need them.
- 24:08We really don't need them. The only one who has an arc here is Malloy.
- 24:12Everyone else doesn't. You know, because they don't redeem themselves.
- 24:16They're all pigs. But Poe has always been a good guy.
- 24:18We know. Garland Green does. I'm going to stick that. You know,
- 24:21the Maryland Mangler. No. He does have a redemption arc. He spurs the child.
- 24:26And then. Oh, what a nice person. I know that.
- 24:29But in a warped, sort of, twisted sort of way in the world of this film,
- 24:32that is technically a redemption arc.
- 24:34You know? No, I don't. I don't. I don't see it. That scene should have been
- 24:38written out. I disagree. Period.
- 24:40I disagree. Period. And it also sets up his little thing at the end,
- 24:43you know, where he's basically the only one that gets out alive, apart from Poe.
- 24:48I do like the execution portion of the timing of the film.
- 24:51And what they do is the first half of the film is them getting to Carson City.
- 24:58And for the first act, taking over the plane, getting to Carson City and switch
- 25:03out the six for 10 and get that all done and then fly and fly to the Lerner Airfield.
- 25:09That's the first act. And then the second act is Lerner Airfield where everything
- 25:14goes fucking batshit crazy.
- 25:16It's the 18 but on a big budget yeah but it's not the 18 it is but on a big
- 25:21budget and better more slickly directed that would just make it 18 at all it's make it 18 it's not 18,
- 25:31but yeah you know talking about it,
- 25:37I didn't like the pinball death I thought that was fucking batshit stupid I
- 25:43do like the comedy relief when he gets stuck in the you know, the.
- 25:48I got the, uh, fuck, I can't fucking think of the goddamn, the,
- 25:52uh. The bottom part of the plane. The wheel. Yeah.
- 25:56And Dan gets the fucker's body out. The landing gear. Fucking hell. Yeah.
- 26:00And he gets stuck in the landing gear and thought that was stupid,
- 26:03by the way. But it's convenient. And he writes on the chest. Yes. Yes.
- 26:07And actually, did you do this? And he chucks him. And he got to,
- 26:11people go, oh, there's a bird shit in my car. And then he plops on the car.
- 26:15First of all, his body would have exploded. so there's no way they'll be able
- 26:21to read what he wrote on that chest and do you know whose car it is he drops on?
- 26:26Major Briggs from Twin Peaks even better a Twin Peaks reference fuck me.
- 26:34Don Davis you call the actor he was also Scully's dad in the X-Files and there's
- 26:39a couple of other X-Files actors here actually the guy who plays Swamp Thing
- 26:43and Nick Chinland who plays Billy Bedlam.
- 26:46So there you go. X-Files and Twin Peaks.
- 26:51And he takes out Bedford. When Bedford finds out that he's been paroled.
- 26:56He goes, you'll put the buddy back in the box. Yeah.
- 27:00You know, is what it is. I wanted more...
- 27:04Because these characters are ugly, I think what I would have liked to have seen
- 27:07more of are extremely violent deaths. Better deaths? Like in Robocop, actually?
- 27:13Yeah. If you're going to give us these ugly characters, cartoon-esque,
- 27:18vile characters, like they did with Robocop, then they need to get their bumpins.
- 27:22And I think a lot of these were too off-camera, way too off-camera.
- 27:26I think they handle Cyrus pretty well. but when
- 27:29you have especially with Donny Trail Dog with
- 27:33Bing Rames his is off camera pretty much I
- 27:35know and then you've got Swamp Thing who gets flooded and
- 27:39thrown out of the fire truck and these
- 27:42are the core guys you don't really see anything Donny Trail is probably certainly
- 27:47on screen anyway is probably the most unpleasant character Johnny 24 or whatever
- 27:51you call him so he could have I think Rachel Tocotton is that how you pronounce
- 27:56her name should have been the one to finish him off instead of him just dying
- 27:59in the plane crash. Yeah.
- 28:03I do like where the plane crashes and the cops go is this guy alive?
- 28:07No, he's dead. And they pull the body away but his arms are still hanging there. Yeah.
- 28:12Yeah. I mean with Robocop, Robocop they're probably the most vile characters
- 28:17I've seen on screen or some of the most vile anyway.
- 28:19But they die really memorable gruesome deaths.
- 28:23So it's like the guilty are punished. There's that payoff for the audience So
- 28:26I think they should have had more of that here.
- 28:28Yeah, you should have had that because you would have had, like,
- 28:30you could work with propellers getting sucked into the engine.
- 28:33Oh, there's all sorts you get there. Yeah.
- 28:36Yeah, a bunch of stuff. There's a great scene when they're flying into Vegas,
- 28:40and one of the best shots of the film, actually that whole ending is brilliantly shot.
- 28:44They actually shot that in Vegas too. I know. At the Sands Hotel when they were demolishing it.
- 28:49But there's a shot where the propeller comes flying through the plane. It's really cool.
- 28:53And it cuts the plane pretty much in half. someone could have got gutted from
- 28:56that you know give us something somebody's head could have been like Danny Trejo's head or something yeah,
- 29:02there's another X-Files actor Danny Trejo he appeared in an X-Files episode,
- 29:06okay nobody gives a fuck so anyways nobody gives nobody actually everyone listening
- 29:11has just turned us off now right okay right anyways.
- 29:17So their whole thing is to get Francisco from the Carson City and then they
- 29:22get to the airfield and then Francisco, drug guy, drug mule, whoever he is,
- 29:27drug czar, he's got a plane waiting for them and he's going to bring a handful
- 29:31of the prisoners back with him. Yes.
- 29:34And he ends up obviously as they, I do like, I do like when the plane crashes
- 29:41at Linfield and they see all the cars coming. They see Malloy and the team coming, right?
- 29:47And like, oh, my God. And the guy's on the tower. He screams.
- 29:51They're coming. They're coming.
- 29:53How long do we got? Oh, 10, 15 minutes. Okay, guys, pull the plane out.
- 29:58So they got 10 minutes to dig out the plane because it's embedded in the dirt
- 30:04and then pull it out of the dirt and get it upright so they can fly it out of
- 30:10there. And they're going to do this in 10 minutes.
- 30:13Yeah. This is the longest 10 minutes in film history. Yeah, I was going to say
- 30:17that there. It is extended. And in fact, I think they even say it.
- 30:21There's a line that actually references something like that where it's saying,
- 30:25yeah, give or take or, you know, something like that.
- 30:27But yeah, it's not 10 minutes, essentially. It's like more like half an hour.
- 30:32There's a scene where Dog, and at this point, even over Cyrus is probably more violent.
- 30:39He wants to execute the police. He's more of a badass, I think.
- 30:45And he wants to execute and Paul says, well, you do that, then you're going to lose our leverage.
- 30:50You don't want to do this. And then Cyrus is like, yeah, man,
- 30:54that makes sense. We're not going to do that. More stupidity from Cyrus.
- 30:57Yeah. Again, there should have been a moment where he puts the pieces together
- 31:03or even a look that he gives Paul that Paul doesn't see where he's caught on.
- 31:07There sort of is, but it's more like a look where I may suspect something here,
- 31:11but he's meant to be a criminal mastermind and a genius, he should have not
- 31:15just here had worked it out, but long before.
- 31:19Yeah, like I said, I think, I know it's a dumb, fun film, and we'll go with it fine.
- 31:25But there's nothing wrong with throwing the audience a curveball where he knew
- 31:31the whole time Poe was a good guy. Yeah.
- 31:33And the audience could go, oh, that makes sense because A, Cyrus is brilliant.
- 31:39And also, it makes sense why he let Poe do this and Poe do this.
- 31:44He was just playing with his food. He was toying with him before he had time.
- 31:48It was part of his master plan where he needed pull to do this, to get to this.
- 31:54So then he would pull the rug and that might all work out in his favor type
- 31:57thing. You know, always about three moves ahead. But we don't get that.
- 32:02I do like the ambush they have with the cops. Again, 10 minutes,
- 32:06they dig out the plane, pull out the plane, which I don't know how they did, but they did it.
- 32:11And then they go, they set up little traps for the cops.
- 32:17So that was night time.
- 32:22I was more distracted by the fact that a bunch of men no matter how hard ass
- 32:28and bad ass they are can along with just a tractor pull this massive plane out
- 32:35of the sand with a bunch of ropes that's not going to happen,
- 32:40I know they're tough guys but they're not that fucking tough,
- 32:44Yeah. Now, they take off.
- 32:48Don't know how, but they eventually took off. They take off.
- 32:51And they're going to crash land.
- 32:53They've got no choice. They've got to crash land in Vegas. I think you see me
- 32:55singing. He got the whole world on his hands.
- 32:58It's now stupid. And so they crash.
- 33:03And then after the plane finally crashes and stops, then there's the motorcycle fire truck scene. Yep.
- 33:09I mean, if you want your action eye candy, this is gold.
- 33:14This is the golden, I mean, this doesn't, it's, it's so pleasantly stupid that you can't look away.
- 33:25And I think that's why I questioned people's hate on Michael Bay.
- 33:29Well, Michael Bay is smarter when telling these kinds of stories.
- 33:34And, but, you know, to each their own, I guess.
- 33:37Again, we can go back and we just talked about the deaths and Bushimi survives
- 33:41at the end, which I thought was stupid.
- 33:42And I just think for all the money you're spending on these incredible elaborate
- 33:48crashes and sets and chase sequences would look really good I mean again using
- 33:54models with a little bit of green screen could barely notice it notice it with
- 33:59the plane a little bit but no harm done,
- 34:01it could have given us I mean let us see fucking Cyrus let us see Cyrus' head
- 34:07explode let us see that for Christ's sake let us see Ving Rhames fly off after the motorcycle,
- 34:15supposedly engulfs him in flames. Let her see him on fire.
- 34:19It was something. Yeah, I mean, and another draft of the script would have been fine.
- 34:22I mean, we're probably being a bit harsh here, but it is true,
- 34:27but I still really enjoy and find this thoroughly entertaining, this fellow.
- 34:33I mean, it is completely stupid and completely over-the-top pantomime,
- 34:39but it is just some really sort of fun and likable about it.
- 34:44You know, like I said, I still like the film, but at the end of the day there's
- 34:49better out there that people forget about.
- 34:51We'll probably eventually give a face off as a batshit crazy as well.
- 34:54John Wayne. Yeah, Broken Arrow, John DeVolta, which I liked.
- 34:58So, and those films don't have.
- 35:02The staying power even over even face off doesn't
- 35:06have the staying power for some reason it's con air and i
- 35:10don't know why i think it's probably the completely over the
- 35:13top larger than life characters and yes there is inconsistencies
- 35:16there with them but i think they are so over
- 35:19the top and in your face they are so memorable plus the
- 35:23i mean it's completely the whole film is completely toe-in-cheek
- 35:26and it's just a popcorn action film
- 35:29with real dark humor in
- 35:32there and it's just a bit crazy i think people i certainly appreciated it at
- 35:37the time and revisiting it i still find it very entertaining and actually got
- 35:41quite nostalgic watching it and brought me back to when i did first watch it
- 35:46with my mates on video back in the late 90s i think it would have been 98 or so Yeah,
- 35:52I mean, there's a lot to love about this.
- 35:55A lot of people would agree Con Air is a fan fave of the 90s action genre. Yep.
- 36:03All right. We're going to wrap this one up. We got another 90s coming to you.
- 36:07Don't know what one that is yet. I almost want to stick with planes.
- 36:11Right, so it's plan month then?
- 36:14We could do Executive Vision and like Air Force One. Plan month.
- 36:20Yeah, Harrison forward. Just call it plane month.
- 36:24Okay, plane month. Yeah, and then we'll review some old episodes of, I don't know, our wife.
- 36:32So, yeah, so we'll probably do like Air Force One and executive decision,
- 36:36I think, is an underrated gem.
- 36:37It got lost in the shuffle, but one of the biggest, balliest moves in cinema
- 36:42history happened in executive decision.
- 36:46And it is, it'll be fun to talk about. let's do snakes on a plane as well if
- 36:51we're going to do plane month,
- 36:53If we do stakes on a plane, the problem, how many do we got?
- 36:56We got so many. Oh, fuck. I don't give a fuck. It's plane month, guys.
- 37:02We'll have to do planes, trains, and automobiles. No, no. I'm joking.
- 37:08Okay. And then we will end with plane. With Jared Butler. Our plane.
- 37:14Leslie Nielsen. Oh, my God. All right. So there you go. There's our next line
- 37:18up. It's plane month. We had that all planned the whole time.
- 37:22Oh dear and we're accusing other people of being cheesy and ropey what,
- 37:28we're fucking terrible at this fucking we're terrible alright so next up executive
- 37:32decision Kurt Russell that's all you need to hear the great action star Kurt
- 37:39Russell making the transition from 80's action,
- 37:43to 90's it's playing month on citizen freedom yep,
- 37:49alright guys give us a shout out and you can certainly yell at us if you want
- 37:53because we will be getting to the final destinations, I promise.
- 37:56Give us a shout at citizenframe underscore podcast on Instagram and, of course, on Facebook.
- 38:03That's all we have for you. We're going to wrap it up. Take care of yourselves. Be good.