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A Life In Movies: Shea Serrano · All The Right Movies

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All the right movies. Hi everyone, welcome to a life
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and Movies, the interview show from all the right movies.
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My name is Luke. On the show we talk to people in
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entertainment about three of their favorite films.
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And today I'm talking to a journalist, podcaster, New York
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Times bestselling author, TV writer and producer and all
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round man of the people. It is Sheer Serrano.
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How you doing Sheer? What up baby?
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I'm great. How are you?
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Yeah, great. Thank you.
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Where you talking from? I'm in San Antonio, TX.
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Is that your permanent base or do you move around a lot?
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Oh. No, no, no.
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This is my permanent base. I was born here.
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I left for a little while. You know, you like, wander away
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from home for 15 years or whatever when you're becoming an
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adult. And then I found my way back
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here a couple of years ago. Where are you?
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I mean the northeast of England, just outside of a place called
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Newcastle. Have you ever been to the UKI?
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Don't think so. Wait hold on, does Paris count
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as the UK? Not these days, no.
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OK, well then no. What about Italy?
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Italy. No, I mean it's still like a
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three hour flight to get to Italy.
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OK then. No, I've not.
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I've not been to the UK. Those are the only places.
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Those are the only places in Europe I've been to.
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We went there a few years ago when my wife and I celebrated
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our 10 year wedding anniversary. We never got to go on like a
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honeymoon because we had all these complications that came up
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around the time of the wedding, like medical stuff.
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But till 10 years we wanted to go somewhere.
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We didn't go there, We didn't go to the UK.
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Turns out I thought we did. Paris and Italy is better, I
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think. Where did you go in Italy?
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We went to Venice. I mean, it's probably the
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greatest place in the world, so I think you chose the right.
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Place It was so cool, dude. It was so cool.
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It looked like in all of the movies, like everybody was
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cruising around on boats. All of the people were super
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like handsome and attractive and and like cool looking.
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It was great. It was a wonderful time.
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OK, so coming to you live from San Antonio, we're going to talk
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about 3 movies that she has chosen.
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Are these your all time favorite share or just personal
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connection or just ones that you plucked out with in there?
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These are these are movies that I love.
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You could put, you could put them all three of them on my all
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time favorites list there. If I were to like organize them
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into my 10 favorite movies or 20 favorite movies or whatever, all
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three of these would 100% be be in there.
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I don't think that would be the top three, but they would be in
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there. Yeah.
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I mean, it's difficult to do a top 3, isn't it?
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Difficult to do a top. Three, it changes so much.
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Yeah. It's like every single time I
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think I have it pinned down. And then the one that I know for
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sure, my all time favorite ever movie is this movie.
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I had this giant poster behind me, this framed poster of the
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movie called Blood in Blood Out, which is like a Chicano gangster
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movie from the early 90s. That's my number one favorite
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movie ever. I love it so so much.
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Right. I know that one's number one.
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I don't know Numbers 2 through 20.
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You have you've not seen it? No.
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Oh my God, you got to see it. So.
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So the tricky part of this one is, is Disney owns the rights to
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it. Right.
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But it's, again, it's like a gangster movie.
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So they're not going to put it on Disney Plus.
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No, no, or whatever. But is it not?
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Streaming anywhere you can't. Watch it anywhere.
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It's not on streaming anywhere. Every like every couple of
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months somebody will upload a version of it to YouTube and you
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can watch it on YouTube for free like just, but that's the only
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way you're going to catch it on streaming.
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Otherwise you got to have a hard copy of it, which I prefer.
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I prefer. I don't know if you're a hard
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copy guy like a physical medium like I like you're Avhs.
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Guy, aren't you? Yeah, VH.
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I like VHS tapes the most. DVDs are cool as well, but for
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some there's something special about VHS tapes to me.
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Yeah, the same for me. I think it's, I think we're the
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similar age. I think you're 42 and I think
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it's just nostalgia for me. Yeah, that's for that's, that's
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got to be a big part of it, I think #1 nostalgia #2 they just
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look cool. They look like, I mean, they're
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like little movie posters, which I appreciate.
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Also recently I started collecting them like several
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years ago, like 2017 or something, right?
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Just like I was in AI happened to be in a thrift store.
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They had a like a big bin of them for sale.
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They're like 1/4 each or something like that, $0.33 each.
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And I was like, oh man, I've not seen these in so long.
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And I grabbed a couple and I just had them on my bookshelf in
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my office. And then I just slowly started
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buying more and more of them. And then so I at this point I've
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collected maybe like almost 600. I have like 600 of them, right?
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And and and in the last like couple of weeks, I bought TV
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like an old Zenith 9 inch VCRTV combo for my office and I'll
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just put it on like I'm in a fucking blockbuster or whatever.
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It's just playing on this on the side.
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And it makes me so happy, like to you to like pull the cassette
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out and put it in and you hear it like Rev up and like and then
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it starts. It's so I love it man.
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Yeah, like one of the very early VHSS that the VCRS that I had
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must have been early 80's. The remote was on a on a lead
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and the lead connected to the VCR and you could.
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Only do it that way. That's great.
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That sounds. Amazing.
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OK, cool shit, let's get into it then.
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First film, Which one have you picked out?
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My first one is is white men can't jump.
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Yes, from 1992. Written and directed by Ron
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Shelton, White Men Can't Jump stars Wesley Snipes and Woody
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Harrison as Sidney Dean and Billy Hoyle, 2 mismatched street
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basketball players who spark of an unlikely friendship on the
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courts in LA while trying to keep their relationships afloat.
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The supporting cast is sprinkled with ex pros and an unbelievable
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turn from Rosie Perez as Billy's girlfriend Gloria.
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We're in Sidney Dean's house now.
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Cher, why have you chosen White Men Can't Jump?
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I think white men can't jump is it's my it's my favorite sports
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movie ever. I think it's the greatest sports
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movie ever. It's so much fun to watch,
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especially again, this you you mentioned this came out in 92.
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So that means I probably saw it. I didn't see it in a theater.
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I just saw it like on TVI probably found it around 94 and
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95, right. So that puts me at that puts me
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at 1314 years old, which is right around the same time that
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I had like come across a basketball player named Reggie
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Miller, who was the first basketball player that I ever
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loved just as like he played for the the Pacers.
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Of course, he was just this like this sort of shit talking
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underdog who was always like sort of picking verbal fights
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with people and he's out on the court and he's running and he's
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shoving people and, and, you know, doing his thing.
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And I just thought he was the coolest person that I'd ever
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seen play basketball. And then I come across this
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movie and the whole movie is that.
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So the first time you watch it? The first time I watch it, I'm,
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I'm a teenager and I'm like, man, this is the coolest shit
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that I've ever seen. This is like all of the stuff
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that I love all at once. And then you watch it like I,
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I've watched it probably in my life 50 times.
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And each time you watch it, especially as you age, you just
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like pick up different parts of it.
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You realize what it when you're an adult, like this is a movie
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about friendship. You think when you're a kid, oh,
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this is a movie about first you think it's a movie about
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basketball, and then you think it's a movie about love.
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And like this relationship that doesn't work out between Billy
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and and Gloria. And then you realize at the end,
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like, Oh, no, this is a this is about Sydney and Billy, like
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warring best friends who like enter this new phase of life
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together. Like it just it touches on all
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of the things. It's it's expertly paced, It's
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wonderfully written. It's so smart and clever and
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just like, it's just, it just does all of the things I want in
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a movie. I just, it's fucking awesome.
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Yeah, I, I hadn't seen it for a few years, and when I came back
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to revisit it for for this conversation, I couldn't believe
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how well it held up. The scripts really, really
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smart. All the beats really work well.
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And Wesley Snipes has got like bucket loads of charisma.
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Oh my God, he's incredible. He's one of my favorite actors
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ever. He of course has a ton of
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movies, but he has this like this stretch beginning in the
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early 90s with like, I think the first time I saw him was in
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Major League and I was like, this dude, this is is so
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incredible. And that's the first movie I
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saw, man. The very like the very first
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actual thing I saw man was was he shows up in in the bad video,
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Michael Jackson bad video. He's like one of the street
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Tufts that gives that gives Mike a hard time, right.
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But even then you're like, man, what is it about this person who
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I just want to see more of them. He shows up in Major League, you
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know, like man, this rules. And then he gets like a big
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feature starring role in new Jack City a couple of years
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later as as Nino Brown. And just like everything he did
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for like 10 years was just incredible.
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He he has a string of action movies.
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I'm a big action movie. It's passenger 57, boiling point
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rising sun, demolition man. Like he just as he teams back up
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again later with with with Woody and money train.
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He just has like this electricity in his bones that
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when he's on screen, you have to like negotiate with your own
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eyeballs to blink because you don't want to miss a single
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frame of like the thing that he's doing or the OR what he's
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at. We didn't even talk about when
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he gets to doing Blade, which is, which is an all time
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character. Like like just I just even today
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as a grown adult 42 year old husband and father and I just
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love him. I just love when he shows up on
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the screen. I'm like, yes, give me more of
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that. Give me as much Wesley as I can
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get. He's absolutely incredible.
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I said at the top, Rosie Perez, I mean, she's, she's
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outstanding. Yeah, yeah.
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It's like, so you have those three that are, that are leading
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the movie, Woody, Wesley and Rosie, and every single one of
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them is just totally dialed in and like ready to make this an
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an all time great performance. Like it never feels like one of
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them is trying to steal from another one in a scene.
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It feels like they're they're they're all playing, I mean, to
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stay on theme, they're all playing like a perfect three man
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weave on a fast break sort of situation.
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You know what I mean? Like it's just boom, boom, boom.
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They set each other up so many times.
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We we have moments in the movie where they each get to be like
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the star. They each get to be the hero,
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they each get to be the asshole, they each get to be the foil.
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Like it's just, it's so great to watch.
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Doing a bit of reading up on the film, apparently it was one of
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Stanley Kubrick's favorite films, which I was stunned to
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read. It's got to be everybody's
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favorite. I feel like if you watched it
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then you loved. It yeah, I mean the.
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Only way you don't love this movie is if you didn't watch it.
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Yeah. Fucking Stanley Cube.
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Fucking Cube Cube. Loved it, man.
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Come on. So have you got a favorite scene
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from the film, Cher? My favorite scene is the is the
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opening scene when we get introduced to Billy, when we get
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introduced to Sydney, billions of hustling Sydney the first
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time because it, it's stretched out over like 20 minutes, right.
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Yeah. And you, you get to watch Wesley
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play basketball. You get to watch Billy play
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basketball. You get to watch him doing his
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like, shit talking thing. And it's pretty, it's so pretty.
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And you go, you're watching all of this happen.
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And then they and then they bring in Billy.
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Like he steps in when a player gets injured and he plays like
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the last two points of the game and his team ends up winning,
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but he doesn't shoot the ball. And that ends up becoming this
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competition, this this conversation where he's like,
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yeah, you're probably right, Sydney.
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Like, I probably am no good at basketball.
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I probably can't shoot a lick. Like, whatever.
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What's it worth to you to find out?
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And then it becomes like, oh, I see what's happening here.
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They're about to have shooting competition.
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And now it's just those two guys.
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It's just those two matching charisma, matching shot for
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shot. You sort of know what's going to
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happen, but also you kind of don't know what's going to
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happen. And it's great.
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You also have Kadeem Hardison in there just tossing grenades, end
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of the scene. And it's it's so good.
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You get this great turn when they're shooting.
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If somebody's listening, you've not seen the movie, they do a
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shooting contest. They're going to shoot five
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shots from the top of the key and they're going to alternate.
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Wesley goes first, he buries his, then Woody buries his and
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Wesley buries his second one and then Woody.
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And then they just alternate like that.
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And as they're going, you see Wesley, his confidence as the
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scene goes on, starts to deteriorate.
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He realizes, oh shit, I'm in the tank with another great white
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shark, right, is what's happening.
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And and all the while Billy, who's presented as his dork the
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whole time, you watch his confidence grow and grow, grow.
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You watch him become you. You watch his character become
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like who he is in the movie, which is just like this brash
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braggart who just can't help himself.
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And he just is running his mouth more and more and more until
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until we get the turn at the very end.
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When Wesley's about to shoot his last shot, Woody leans into his
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ear and he's like, don't worry, Sydney.
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I've hustled a hell of a lot better players than you don't
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put up no brick. And then it it all comes like
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crashing down on Wesley's head. I think I mentioned that Wesley
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goes first. He lets Billy go first anyway,
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but it's just this like, great turn.
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And then he's walking off and the guy's like, man, you got
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lucky or whatever. And he tells Luck's got nothing
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to it's like every single line in this scene is is incredible.
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It's 20 minutes of just movie perfection.
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I have three sons and one of them is like super into
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basketball and like he like like plays for the the school team or
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whatever. And like when white men can't
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jump showed up on Hulu and I was like, sit down with me.
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You need me to watch this whole movie son.
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I'm not even going to tell you got to watch this whole movie.
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Just watch the first scene. Watch the 1st 20 minutes with
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me. And he sat down and watched it
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and just pulled into it and I'm like, all right, you can go.
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And then he just disappears off into his room.
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And then he went into his room and watch the rest of it on his
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own. Amazing in his room.
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And I was like, that's fucking incredible.
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If you can get a 15 year old kid to not be on TikTok.
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Yeah, like you're doing something right.
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Yeah. And man, what a great, great
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movie. Oh my God.
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Incredible. Oh shit, what is hard God damn
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work being this good? Shut the fuck up.
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Oh, Rabbit is am I starting to get to you, Sydney?
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You aren't getting to me. You're just making my eardrums
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hurt. See, The thing is, you guys look
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at me. You see the backwards hat, the
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grey socks, the funky outfit, and you say now this guy's a
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chump. Am I right?
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Fucking geek. I'm fucking geek.
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Exactly. All right.
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What you don't realize is that it ain't easy.
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It is hard. God damn work making something
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this pretty look like a chump or a geek.
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So I must be doing it for a reason.
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Well, you got me convinced, whatever the reason may be.
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Cool, SO1 down. What's the second film on your
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list year? Second film training day.
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Oh, from 2001, Training Day was written by David Ayer and
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directed by Antoine Fuqua. It stars Denzel Washington in
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his Oscar winning performance as corrupt detective Alonzo Harris,
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who breaks in a rookie officer, Jake Hoyt, played by Ethan
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Hawke, and takes him on a day in the job that he'll never come
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back from. This one's got a great
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supporting cast as well, but King Kong ain't got shit on
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Denzel. Share.
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Why'd you pick this one? I picked this one because I was
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trying to do a thing. When you said we were going to
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do 3 movies, I immediately got very excited and I tried to, I
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wanted to touch across different, different genres.
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So we get one from the one from the early 90s, one from the
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early 2000s. Here we also have Denzel
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Washington, who is the greatest actor who has ever lived, the
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number one actor of all time. We have him and his and as you
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mentioned in his Oscar winning performance as the villain.
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Up to this point, we've really only ever seen him as the like
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the the heroic hero of the situation.
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He shows up here and just puts on a firework show.
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Like immediately, immediately when the, the the movie starts,
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it's it's Ethan Hawke in his house, calm.
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And when he's like nervous for this first day, he's going to
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meet this new training officer and whatever, whatever.
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And then he gets a phone call and you hear like the edges of
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Denzel's voice on the phone call and he just sort of is real curt
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and hangs up on him. Eventually, Ethan walks into the
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diner and sits across from Denzel.
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And Denzel immediately is like, I'm in charge of not only the
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situation, but of your life from right here going forward.
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Like I'm in complete control. I'm going to do everything I can
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to keep you off balance. I'm going to be intimidating and
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I'm going to be cool and I'm just going to be smarter than
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you and and better than you in every single respect.
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I don't know if you can say that this is the best performance
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he's ever had. I think that's always going to
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be Malcolm X When he showed up in there, which you which you
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should have won the Oscar for in in 92.
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But he he comes here with a whole new thing.
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Watching him do it, it felt like you were seeing a new person.
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Because if we look, if we look at like Malcolm X, we'll just
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list off a few. But like Malcolm X, Pelican
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Brief, Philadelphia virtuosity, even something like fall in or
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or or he got game or or whatever the hurricane like they're like
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he was always using this like unflappable Denzel mode that he
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goes into this like like a very masculine archetype, but it was
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always aimed in a certain direction.
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It was always aimed toward good for the most part.
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And he took that and he and he aimed it toward bad and it felt
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like, holy shit, like this is so terrifying without him ever,
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ever really doing anything to terrify you.
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Just like a look or like a phrase that he says or when he
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present or, or when he like decides to give you a little bit
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of information. And it's like, God, this is this
17:50
is an incredible performance from him.
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This incredible performance from from Ethan Hawke.
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This is one of the few times that somebody was able to sit
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across from Denzel Washington and like match him beat for
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beat. Like we saw Viola do it when
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they did fences and you're like, OK, this is great.
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We see we see Ethan Hawke do it here.
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Like we saw Tom do it in in Philadelphia.
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Like there are a few times when there was somebody else who was
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opposite him and and all that it did was make Denzel even better.
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And this is just this is a perfect movie for me when you're
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watching it. Oh my God, I saw that.
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I saw that theater multiple times.
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Yeah, I mean, it's unbelievable what he does because this
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character is an absolute asshole from the from like from the jump
18:33
off, like you said, straight away.
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Start. But then it's incredible what he
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does because he gives that character a lot of appeal.
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And I'm watching this film thinking, yeah, you know, he's
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got a point here when he says, like some of those things, he's
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saying, I think, yeah, yeah, I'm on his side.
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And that character's despicable. I can't believe that you come
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around to his character at certain points through the film.
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I mean, at the end, obviously not.
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But you know, Denzel. Incredible.
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Yeah, it's a it's it's wild to watch because even now, re
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watching it, you're with him up until he shoots Roger, like up
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until that moment you're like, like you're saying like he's
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making some good points. Like I get what I get what's
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going on. Oh yeah, yeah, this is how this
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this level of policing is. I get it.
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OK, cool. It makes sense.
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And then he shoots Roger. And then not only does he shoot
19:21
Roger and kill Roger, he tells Jake, you're the person who shot
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him. And then he tells all of his,
19:25
all of the soldiers, what did you see?
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We saw Jake shoot him. And then Jake is like, you've
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been planning this all day. And he tells him, I've been
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planning this all week. And you're like, Oh my fucking
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God. This is like, like this is like
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he's evil. He's actually evil.
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He's not just scary and intimidating because there are a
19:43
lot of like scary, intimidating, but good people, which you think
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he's going to do in this movie. Because again, we have, we have
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a 20 year history, a 15 year history of watching him do that
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or whatever it was 13 years, right?
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We we're like, it's like he cashed in all of those chips,
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all of those chips in this one moment to to just become evil.
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And it's so it's so unsettling. And especially on the rewatch,
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There's a part in the rewatch where you're watching him just
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sort of set Ethan all on fire over and over and over again.
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And then? They had this great scene when
20:16
he sits in the car after they shoot Roger and they sit in the
20:21
car and he's like breaking it down for Ethan Hawke.
20:23
And he's being soft with him and he's being warm with him.
20:26
And he's like, listen, I'm sorry that I have to be the one to
20:28
tell you to be this way, but this is how it is.
20:31
And like, like he's like bringing him in.
20:34
He's like taking care of him and, and, and consoling him.
20:37
And you think, wait, is he still is he good?
20:40
Is he like you, like you? He puts that that hint of doubt
20:43
in there. But then of course, he takes
20:45
them to the to the Mexicans to go get killed.
20:47
Right. But but right before they sit
20:50
down in the car and have that scene, we get a quick shot of
20:54
Denzel in the car. Ethan is on the OR Jake is on
20:56
the outside. He sees Alonzo on the phone and
21:00
you can you hear it. If you turn the TV up, you can
21:02
hear it. And he's like, yeah, just make
21:04
sure that bathtub is clean. Like that's what he says.
21:06
Like, he is right there telling him, hey, I'm bringing this guy
21:09
to kill him. OK, do that.
21:11
And then he hangs up the phone. And then he puts his arm around
21:13
him and he's like, come here, I'm going to take care of you.
21:15
I'm the father figure. You can trust me still.
21:18
Like, it's unbelievable what's going on right there.
21:21
That's a revelation on a rewatch.
21:23
Oh, Oh my God, he's so just nastily evil in it.
21:29
It's great. It feels really dangerous as
21:32
well. I think Anton Fuqua does it,
21:34
shoots it in such a way and puts you in situations that it feels
21:37
really dangerous and it feels really authentic as well.
21:40
It kind of like I love white men, obviously I love white men,
21:44
Can't jump, but it feels like a different LA even though it kind
21:47
of is trying to portray the same.
21:49
Yeah, this, this feels closer to like the Heat Los Angeles and
21:53
white men can't jump Los Angeles.
21:54
You know what I mean? Like like every everybody is a
21:57
wolf and you got to fucking be a wolf or you got to die.
22:00
Like this is your only those are your only options.
22:03
Oh my God, what an incredible, incredible movie.
22:06
My favorite scene is going to I'm going to cheat a little bit.
22:08
I'm going to give you 2. I'm going to give you that.
22:10
My favorite, my favorite Denzel scene is the diner scene because
22:14
I just love. I just love when a movie figures
22:17
out how to introduce a character in a way that feels exciting and
22:21
like, it's already like it's going 400 miles an hour, right?
22:25
And that's what they do with with Denzel.
22:27
He's just sitting in the diner at the table reading his paper.
22:30
That's all he's doing. And you're like, Oh my God, this
22:32
is going to be so good. I wrote a thing one time.
22:35
I used to work his website called The Ringer, second pop
22:37
culture website. And I wrote a thing one time.
22:39
There was like an academic paper about movie scenes that Denzel
22:44
did where he was sitting at a table because they're just
22:47
special for some reason. You get Denzel at a table.
22:52
You have him in in Training Day, for example, he has a table
22:55
scene in the movie Philadelphia when he's talking to Tom Hanks.
22:57
He has a table scene and the Equalizer when he's talking to
23:00
with the Russian mob guy and he's like, what do you what do
23:04
you think you see when you look at me or whatever?
23:06
Like it's just Denzel at a table is great.
23:09
But watching him again in 2001 and being like, Oh my God, this
23:13
is going to be this is going to be so much fun is what it feels
23:15
like when that movie starts and he had that first scene and he's
23:18
just fucking harassing Ethan Hawke the whole time.
23:21
That's my favorite Denzel scene. My favorite, like maybe scene
23:25
scene of the movie is, is Jake at the table with the Mexicans
23:30
and they're playing cards and you just it's you're so
23:33
uncomfortable the whole time and you're so tense because you know
23:37
something bad is going to happen.
23:39
Yeah. You know, you know that terror
23:42
is coming. They they're able to get the gun
23:44
away from from Jake. They're able to get the bullets
23:46
out of like it becomes this whole thing.
23:49
And he he like takes the gun, but he doesn't have the bullets
23:51
now. And he like, it's like, oh, it's
23:53
time for us to go. And the smiley tells, I mean,
23:56
there's nothing out there for you, dog.
23:57
And he looks out the window and Jake is gone.
23:59
And you're like, Jesus fuck. Oh, God, this is like, you do
24:04
you do the thing of like, how is he going to get out of this?
24:07
There's no way he's going to get out of this alive.
24:09
There's absolutely no way. It becomes this whole big.
24:12
They, they beat, they beat him up.
24:14
They drag him into the bathroom. They get the shotgun.
24:17
They're about to kill him. The water's running and then the
24:20
and then they find the wallet and you're like, Oh my God, like
24:23
that. Like it's just, it's so fucking
24:26
good. I remember watching that the
24:28
first time I watched this movie. I was in college, right?
24:30
This is 2001, so I'm in college. It comes out at this point.
24:34
I love Denzel Washington already.
24:36
So I'm like, I want to go see this.
24:37
My mom is in town visiting said mom, let's go to the movies.
24:40
Let's go watch this training day movie.
24:42
She's like, OK, cool. And we went and we watched it
24:45
and just out and sitting in the theater, just like, like holding
24:49
on to the armrest during this moment because you don't know
24:52
what's going to happen. Like, are they really going to
24:54
kill this guy? This is going to be crazy.
24:55
Like I'm just watching it and being and being so twisted up is
24:59
what I remember from that moment.
25:00
And then we finished the movie and I'm like, like, you're just
25:04
like metaphorically covered in sweat and you're like, oh, my
25:07
God, oh, what a great movie. I can't believe that that turned
25:10
out the way that it turned out. Right.
25:12
And then we finish and then we go home.
25:14
And then like my mom leaves. This is like on a Sunday.
25:17
My mom leaves and then my girlfriend shows up the next
25:19
day. She had been out of town, She
25:21
went back home. She gets out on Monday.
25:22
And I'm like, we got to go to the movies.
25:24
You got to see this movie you got.
25:25
We got to like the next day we went to go watch it.
25:28
And we end up watching it like 3 times in the theater.
25:31
But man, it's just, yeah, Fuqua's holding a knife to your
25:34
throat for the whole movie is what it feels like.
25:37
Like don't move. Don't you move.
25:39
Oh my God, I love it. I love it so much.
25:42
Like how it's Jake going to get out of this situation because we
25:45
know these three guys just they won't crack.
25:48
He's being taken there to be killed.
25:49
So how is he going to get out of it?
25:50
And you forget about that moment at the start in the alleyway
25:53
with the girl and then you that comes down.
25:56
Oh my God, it's so well written. It's so great.
26:00
And then they do the thing where he calls her Jake is like, Oh, I
26:03
that's I I saved that girl. She was about to be raped by
26:07
like these homeless dudes and I saved her like I saved her like
26:10
like he's already pleading for his life without pleading for
26:12
his life in this in this moment. And and smiley doesn't believe
26:16
the great Cliff Curtis plays this this scene perfectly.
26:20
Doesn't believe him and he's like but he but he like well,
26:24
let me check, let me verify this because if this is true, I have
26:28
to spare you like he's got his own.
26:30
Sort of moral code. Which they which they establish
26:34
when he's talking about Alonzo and and he's like the other guy.
26:37
Noel Gugliami is his real name. I think he plays like the Hector
26:41
character in this movie as well. The ball, the bald head mix.
26:44
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's like, Oh, Alonzo's a
26:47
ruthless low down Vertibato like, but that's why I like him.
26:52
And Smiley is like, no, I that's that's why I never shake his
26:54
hand because he don't respect nothing.
26:56
He don't respect Nala. Right.
26:58
Like they established that that Smiley has his own coat.
27:01
But anyway, you he finds a wallet.
27:04
He makes the phone call. He calls the girl his niece and
27:08
he's asking her, Hey, you know, how was school today?
27:11
And and she's and she tries to lie in the beginning and you're
27:14
like, tell, tell the truth, girl, please fucking tell the
27:16
truth. Like you just are, you're
27:18
pleading at the screen again. So well written, so well acted,
27:22
so well directed. You love when you watch a movie
27:26
and but you've seen thousands of movies probably in your life.
27:30
Like we were like, it seems like you and I grew up just loving
27:33
this thing and we're just going to spend so much of our lives.
27:36
We've seen so many movies, right?
27:39
And so you feel like often if I sit down and watch a movie, all
27:43
right, 10 minutes in, I've got a pretty good idea of what's going
27:46
to. Happen.
27:46
I know where it's going to go. I know, I know what's going to
27:49
happen. I know I'm feeling pretty
27:51
confident, right? But there's some movies that you
27:54
don't. When that happens, it's like a
27:56
special feeling when you're in the theater and you realize I
27:58
can't guess what's going to happen.
28:00
And you have to give yourself up to the movie and just like, let
28:04
the director, let the writers, let the actors take you where
28:07
they want to take. A similar thing happen when I
28:10
watch Get Out and get out gets going and like 20 minutes and
28:14
you're like, I've no idea what the fuck is going on.
28:16
And you just give yourself to Jordan Peele, right?
28:19
The same thing is happening here.
28:20
Like you just, you just give up. You're like, I can't guess, I
28:23
don't know. And you give up and you just are
28:25
watching it completely helpless. Oh my God, Oh my God.
28:29
And then man, when they when they pull that off, when they
28:32
pull off the switch and then they pull him out of the bathtub
28:36
and he's like, it's just business.
28:37
Like we're good, right? Like I need you to say we're
28:39
good. And then he's they let him go
28:42
and he's on the bus riding home. Yeah.
28:45
Oh, you think he's riding home and he.
28:46
Shows up at at Eva Mendez's house or the apartment and then
28:50
they have the shootout and then it still leads to this great
28:53
monologue that Jake has and the showdown and oh fuck, come on,
28:58
come on. It's an amazing good act.
29:00
It's amazing. I don't know.
29:02
I want to watch it again right now.
29:04
Shit. Hey, white boy.
29:08
Yeah, it's me. Almost.
29:09
But that's just of course, if you ask.
29:11
I think Alonzo played you for a fool.
29:13
Essay big time Holmes. Hey, where are you going?
29:19
Where are you going? It's your deal.
29:24
Alonzo pulled off a miracle. Him Times are tight.
29:28
Scared up a lot of cash. What are you, Jack Holmes?
29:32
I don't know. You jacked Roger.
29:40
That's the fool. Alonzo's, I think he's a low
29:43
down. Dirty.
29:45
Ruthless, by the way. But I like that ones.
29:47
I like that. No, no.
29:50
That's why I never shake his hand.
29:52
Home. You don't respect Nala.
29:56
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Thanks again to Better Help for sponsoring this episode of All
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the Right Movies and to end share.
31:09
What's your third film? 3rd movie The Social Network.
31:13
Yes, Grantland, the Harvard years of Mark Zuckerberg as he
31:17
builds his Facebook empire. The Social Network also across
31:20
cuts the Jewel lawsuit brought to his door by best friend
31:23
Eduardo Savarin and arch nemesis Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
31:27
Written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, The
31:30
Social Network has a cast over spelling with talent including
31:33
Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Rooney Mara, Justin
31:36
Timberlake and Armie Hammer. We've made it to the final Club
31:39
Share What do you love about The Social Network?
31:42
Oh man, so this is this is our, our, our, our third era of
31:47
movies. We do White Men can't jump fun
31:50
sports movie from the early 90s that feels very much like that.
31:54
And we do, we do training day. We get an evil one of the all
31:58
time great villains and and then now we're we're going over to
32:02
social network, which is a masterpiece of a movie and so
32:07
many different respects. Like you mentioned, directed by
32:11
David Fincher, who does with this movie what maybe like three
32:15
other people in the history of the world can do with this
32:17
movie, right? You have David Fincher just
32:19
putting all of his muscle into this, just like doing all of the
32:24
David Fincher things with the lighting, with the mood, like
32:28
making the most static scene feel just like alive and like
32:32
threatening. But I don't know how he does it,
32:34
but I just know that he does it. I know when you when you plug in
32:37
a David Fincher movie, there's going to be a moment where
32:39
you're just like, fuck, like I'm up.
32:42
Well, he's turning my pockets inside out right now.
32:44
And I, and I and I and I don't know, I don't know how he's
32:46
doing it, but you've got him doing that and you've got Aaron
32:49
Sorkin who turns conversation into combat is what he does in
32:53
this movie. And they do it immediately,
32:55
immediately when it's when it's Rooney and, and Eisenberg at the
32:59
table and they're going back and forth faster than humans should
33:04
talk. They're just like, and, and, and
33:07
Rooney sort of comments on it without like winking at the
33:10
camera. That does all like being in a
33:12
conversation with you is like being on the Stairmaster, right,
33:15
right, which so many people have tried to RIP off what Aaron
33:18
Aaron Sorkin does, but nobody can do what Aaron Sorkin does
33:21
except for Aaron Sorkin. Like you just it's, it's great.
33:23
And they they keep that up for the whole movie The whole time.
33:27
Anytime somebody sits down to talk, it's just like pop, pop,
33:30
pop, pop, pop, pop, pop like, like, like like a fucking
33:32
woodpecker on the on the tree, just like, and they're all doing
33:36
it going so, so fast. And then you have the score.
33:39
Fucking Trent, Trent Reznor, one of the all time great movie
33:42
scores. It starts from the very
33:44
beginning after they finish our conversation at the start and
33:47
and we got Eisenberg making his way back to the to the room.
33:50
And it's doing that like I don't even know what that instrument
33:53
is like some sort of strings that are just being like it
33:56
just. Adds an atmosphere to
33:58
everything, doesn't. It yeah, yeah.
34:00
And it all feels like, again, this is this is just a movie
34:04
about like a some guy on a computer is what it is.
34:07
But it feels so alive and it feels like so much more than
34:11
that. The first time I watched it
34:13
because I remember seeing the trailer and being like, they
34:15
made a movie about the the Facebook guy.
34:17
Like, that's just going to suck. I can't, I can't wait to hate
34:21
this movie, right? And then you go watch it and
34:24
again, you give yourself up to it.
34:26
You feel pulled in and it becomes unpredictable, but
34:29
you're just sitting there. And it made me feel the same way
34:32
that I feel sometimes when it's like late at night and I look at
34:36
the moon, I feel, I feel insignificant.
34:39
I'm like, fuck, that's like a like, look at that thing just up
34:41
in the sky. Like I could just die right now
34:44
and who cares? But is what it?
34:46
I don't know what that is, what that is that's happening inside
34:48
my my brain when I feel like that.
34:50
But I remember watching this movie and being like, fuck, I
34:53
could just die right now and who cares?
34:55
Like it that, like it's just, it was just so moving watching it.
35:00
Oh my God, I love this movie. I love it.
35:02
I mean, I can totally relate to that year because I've I've
35:06
loved it since it came out and love David Fincher.
35:09
But like you say, it doesn't sound like it's going to be a
35:12
great time about a couple of geeks who made who made websites
35:16
like Who cares? And also to what you were
35:18
saying, I can't put my finger on why I love this, but it does
35:23
something, it makes me feel something, it makes me fizz, but
35:26
I can't put my finger on what it is.
35:29
Yeah, it's just everybody at the at their absolute best, they're
35:33
all plugged in. They're they're all making the
35:36
same movie. And that's really, that's a
35:38
really hard thing to pull off is to get everybody, I mean, they,
35:42
to use a rowing metaphor, rolling in the same direction.
35:45
And, and they do it and they, they all get, they all get
35:49
instances where they get like, again, little, little moments to
35:52
shine in the movie, right? And some of them are small, some
35:55
of them are big. Fincher, for example, he does
35:57
this whole movie and it's just like, it's just like our
36:00
conversation, conversation. We're in this, we're in this
36:02
room, we're in that room. And then they do the, the, the
36:06
race, the regalia or whatever it's called.
36:08
And you've got the, the music going and we're cutting and
36:11
we're getting some action. And it's just, it's 2 minutes of
36:14
David Fincher in a fucking ISO situation where he's just like,
36:17
give me the ball and get out of the way.
36:19
That's all that it is. There's no conversation, there's
36:21
no talking, there's no anything. It's just him with a bunch of
36:24
people who don't even appear anywhere else in the movie.
36:27
It's just, it's just like some guys rowing a boat and, and you
36:31
care desperately about what's happening in it.
36:33
And it's, it's, it's him doing that.
36:35
It's, it's Aaron doing his thing.
36:37
It's Eisenberg with the best performance of his career.
36:41
He has always had this like this thing about where he just seems
36:44
like, I don't know, I've never met him.
36:46
I don't know if this is true. But when I watch him on screen,
36:49
I feel like he looks like a guy who believes he's smarter and
36:53
better than you are all the time, right?
36:56
And he gets to do that in this movie.
36:59
He gets to be exactly that person.
37:01
And he turns the volume all the way up on it.
37:04
And he just becomes such a menacing figure in the movie
37:08
when you're like, man, I do not like, I want to be around this
37:11
guy, but I don't want to be around this guy.
37:14
Like I want like I see, I see that, I see that a grizzly bear
37:18
over there. I see that fox over there.
37:20
And I want to pet it. I want to pet it so bad.
37:23
But I but I know what's going to happen if I do.
37:25
Like that's what he is in this in this movie.
37:27
It's just like it's incredible to watch.
37:30
All of the pieces are just flowing right, Man, I really
37:33
it's it's incredible. And David Fincher, like you're
37:36
saying, is just so good. I see the Zodiac poster behind
37:39
you favorite like I love it. That's another that's another
37:42
diner scene when it's when it's Ruffalo and Gyllenhaal, Jesus
37:46
Christ, and he's explaining it's 50, it's 50.
37:48
It's fifty step like I. Is that true?
37:51
Oh my God. Oh my God.
37:54
It's so good. Fincher is such a good director.
37:57
He's such a good director that I do not like a movie that doesn't
38:00
have like an ending like like training day, Alonzo's dead.
38:06
And then we hear the cover up. Like white men can't jump.
38:09
They they beat the king and duck and then we heat and then we see
38:14
Rosie is gone and like what Zodiac?
38:18
There's no like they don't catch, they don't catch them,
38:21
they don't catch them. And movies like that always make
38:24
me like, oh, just answer the question, please.
38:26
I'm begging you. Just do it.
38:28
But that's that's one of them. Because it's David Fincher and
38:30
because he's a fucking genius that it's, it's perfect.
38:34
It's perfect how they do it in that one.
38:37
And the social network is the the same sort of way.
38:39
Like it just sort of it places you into this world and you get
38:42
to be in it for a while. And you know, you can never come
38:45
up with this world on your own. You're not smart enough, you're
38:47
not talented enough to build this thing to exist here.
38:50
But you get to you get to be in it for two hours or whatever it
38:54
is. And it's just, it's so good,
38:56
dude. Oh my God.
38:57
It's amazing. I mean, it's going to be a tough
39:00
one, but favorite scene? Oh my God, there's so there's so
39:04
many. Again, I feel inclined to go
39:06
with the opening scene just because I like Rooney and and
39:09
Eisenberg, yeah, bouncing that ball back and forth.
39:12
But I think on the rewatch, when I, you know, rewatch all these
39:17
before we we sat down to do this and prior to the rewatch, the
39:21
one line from the movie that always stands out to me that
39:25
it's the first one that I think of whenever I think whenever you
39:28
say does social network right like this happens with all great
39:31
movies, you say, you say the name of a movie and a line
39:35
should pop into your head. I say taxi driver and you're
39:38
like, you looking at me, you know what I mean?
39:40
I say Jaws and you're like, we're going to need a bigger
39:42
boat. Whatever, Scott.
39:44
Yeah. When you say the social network,
39:46
I I immediately in my head, I go to Eisenberg at the deposition
39:50
table. And then he's like, it's very
39:53
simple. If you guys were the inventors
39:55
of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook.
39:58
And then they just, and then they show who he just set it to
40:02
and they're all like, oh fuck, he's right.
40:04
He's right. We can't do what he did.
40:07
If we could, we would have done it.
40:09
And it's it's a fucking sword swipe across the chest when
40:13
you're just like you're completely open.
40:16
And and that part to me always is just like, Oh my God, that's
40:21
who that character is. That's what that movie is.
40:24
Yeah. In 10 words.
40:25
Yeah. It's like it's just all of the
40:27
pieces. That's the one right there.
40:28
That one line. Oh, my God.
40:30
This is the first time he mentioned any problem.
40:33
Yes, it was. You sent 36 emails to Mr.
40:36
Zuckerberg and received 16 emails in return.
40:39
And this was the first time he indicated he was not happy.
40:41
That's correct. He had 42 days to study your
40:44
system and get out ahead. Do you see any of your code on
40:46
Facebook? I could.
40:47
Mark, Did I use any of your code?
40:49
You stole our whole goddamn idea, fellows.
40:53
Can I continue with my deposition?
40:55
You know, you really don't need a forensics team to get to the
40:57
bottom of this. If you guys were the inventors
40:59
of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook.
41:03
I can't wait to stand over your shoulder in what you write as a
41:06
check. No shit.
41:09
Let's continue. So you've got loads of things
41:12
going on at the moment. Share You've got a new book out
41:15
right now, it's called Action Hero Scouting Reports.
41:18
I've been lucky enough to read it.
41:20
It's amazing. I absolutely loved it.
41:23
What was the thing behind that? Can you tell me a bit about
41:25
that? Yeah, the thinking behind the
41:27
action hero scouting report was I really like basketball.
41:31
Basketball is my favorite game, which we probably could have
41:33
guessed based on the movies that we picked here.
41:35
And when you watch basketball, when you play basketball, when
41:38
you coach basketball, then you have scouting reports for the
41:41
players like this. This player in this situation
41:44
has this tendency. They're good at this, they're
41:46
bad at this. Whatever.
41:47
I always thought that was an interesting concept, so I wanted
41:50
to apply it to action heroes. Like some of my favorite movies
41:54
ever are are action movies, you know, Rambo and Die Hard and
41:59
Hard Target, which is not a great movie, but it's super fun
42:01
to watch. Yeah.
42:03
Yeah. Kill Bill, like, like there are
42:05
so many great action movies. Fury Rd. if we're looking, if
42:08
you want like a bona fide masterpiece action movie, like
42:11
Incredible, whatever. All of the movies stretch
42:14
across. I mean, all the action movies
42:15
stretch across the genre of types of movies that you're
42:18
looking for. That's why I wanted to do a
42:21
scouting report. But each scouting report is just
42:24
an action hero. And we're going to look at this
42:26
person. We're going to like go through
42:28
the list of things that you need to be a great action hero.
42:31
And we're going to, we're going to like gamify it.
42:33
Essentially, we're going to make, we're going to make scores
42:36
for each situation And, and then put it all together.
42:39
So, for example, it's super easy to follow.
42:42
Great action heroes is going to have six pieces, right #1
42:46
they're going to have an inciting event.
42:47
Every action hero is like, thrust into action by a thing.
42:51
Yeah. Liam Neeson and taken his
42:53
daughter gets kidnapped by Albanian sex traffickers, right?
42:57
John Mcclane and die Hard. He he ends up trapped in a
43:00
building when the German radical terrorists show up with Hans
43:03
Gruber and his team or whatever. Like they all have a thing like
43:06
that. So that's the first thing we
43:07
look at. What was the inciting event for
43:09
this action hero? If it's a really good one,
43:11
really creative, then they get a high score in that situation.
43:14
If it's like a pretty generic run-of-the-mill, whatever you
43:18
they you get a low score. But there's the inciting event.
43:21
There is the the skills training.
43:23
What sort of skills training does this person have?
43:26
Were they like Beatrix Kiddo and Kill Bill?
43:29
Were were they trained by a literal Kung Fu master?
43:33
Or is it like Antonio Banderas and and and desperado?
43:37
Is he just like an angry musician?
43:39
Like he didn't have any training.
43:41
He's just fucking mad and he got a got a bunch of guns, right.
43:44
So you have you have the skills training, you have the the like.
43:49
This is a made-up thing, but we called it wishnificence, which
43:52
is like the feeling you get when you're watching a movie when you
43:55
want to. I want to be held mariachi in
43:58
desperado for like 10 minutes it seems like.
44:00
I feel like I want to be that guy, right?
44:02
The more you want to be that character, the higher that score
44:05
is. The less you want to be, the
44:07
lower that scores. A good example is is is Jet Li
44:10
in the movie and the movie Romeo Must Die?
44:12
Not a great movie, but when you're watching it in the movie,
44:16
he gets to flirt with Aaliyah and he scores a touchdown in
44:20
like a park football game and he karate kicks a guy in the top of
44:24
the head so hard that the guy's spine shatters.
44:26
Like that's cool. I would like to be gently and
44:28
Romeo must die, but gently and something like Unleashed where
44:33
he's like a, they keep him on a leash like a dog.
44:36
And then when they take the leash off, he goes crazy and
44:38
they put the leash back. Like I don't want to be that
44:40
version. I don't like that's a low wish
44:42
wish significance rating. But so we have like 6 of those
44:45
types of categories and we give scores to all of them and then
44:48
that, that you, you Add all those up and then you get your
44:51
action hero score. And that's basically what's
44:54
going on in the, in the scattering report ideally.
44:57
Or essentially all that I want to do was I just wanted to spend
45:00
like 6 months rewatching all the action movies and then, and then
45:05
I needed a reason to do that. So I'm like, all right, well,
45:07
I'm saying right about it here. Here we go.
45:10
Like, now give me some money. Yeah.
45:13
Where can people buy it? Yeah.
45:15
You can buy it at halfwaybooks.com.
45:18
Halfway Books is the It's an independent publishing company
45:21
that we started a few years ago. It's the only place to get it.
45:24
You can't get it on Amazon. You can't get it in Barnes and
45:26
Noble. Halfway books.com is where you
45:30
it's where you can get it. Cool.
45:33
Do you? Have you got any?
45:33
I know that you're such a an action movie aficionado.
45:36
Have you got any plans to do anything else?
45:38
Do you want to re watch a lot of horror films for example, or a
45:41
lot of romantic comedies? Oh, man, yeah.
45:44
It's always fun to do, to do something like that.
45:46
I don't know if you do the same thing, you just like get hooked
45:49
on a theme, you know, like I'm going to watch a bunch of these.
45:51
I did. I did a similar thing last
45:54
summer. I was out in New Mexico, right?
45:57
And I was there for for a couple of months on summer vacation
46:01
when I was out there working, but it was during summer break.
46:04
So I'm in New Mexico for a few months by myself and it's like
46:07
I'm like a couple of hours from Roswell, which is like where the
46:11
Area 51 is or whatever the the secret aliens are.
46:16
That's. What they say.
46:17
And I don't want to drive all the way to Roswell because
46:20
there's like a few hours away. But what I did want to do is I
46:22
did want to rewatch all the Alien movies and not just like,
46:25
and I don't mean just like the like Aliens, Sigourney Weaver
46:28
movies. I mean like any movie that had
46:29
an alien in it, I wanted to rewatch it because again, I know
46:33
I was going to be out there for a couple of months.
46:35
And so I did that and I rewatched all of them,
46:38
everything from like whatever close Encounters to like Fire in
46:42
the Sky to which which is really, it holds up really well.
46:46
Yeah, yeah. Like all VHS which has aliens in
46:51
it, like out of nowhere. Like I wanted, I wanted to
46:54
rewatch all of them. And what ended up happening is I
46:56
was rewatching them and I noticed this thing that would go
46:59
on where anytime there was an alien abduction, they would like
47:02
get the guy up on the ship and he'd be like freaking out, Oh my
47:05
God, what's happening? Aliens?
47:07
I'm terrified, right? It was always the same way.
47:10
They always like abducted a, a wimp.
47:12
He'd get up there and there's a wimp and I was like, man, I want
47:14
to watch a movie where they abduct a guy and he gets up
47:17
there and it's like, oh, shit, we accidentally abducted like
47:20
Rambo or John Wick or whatever. Like that's a, that's a whole
47:23
different thing. And I, I looked around for it
47:25
and I couldn't find it. So I was like, well, I'm just
47:27
going to write that shit. And so then I like, I then I
47:30
spent like a couple of months writing a story called the
47:33
Abduction where these aliens abduct a guy and he gets up on
47:36
the ship and then he just goes fucking nuts and is just killing
47:39
all the like, just hand to hand combat killing aliens.
47:44
Oh. Wow, I mean that's I would watch
47:47
that film. I would watch that film too and
47:49
that's why I wrote the short story.
47:51
Maybe they make it into a movie one day, who knows, But that
47:54
always ends up happening to me is always like get hooked on a
47:57
thing and then I just watch a bunch of movies about a thing.
48:00
It happened with Matthew McConaughey recently.
48:02
I was on Amazon looking for something to watch. 2 For the
48:05
Money came up. So he plays like a former
48:07
college quarterback who is really good at picking sports
48:10
gambling picks and Pacino runs a sports book and he gets them to
48:15
come work for him and whatever. But it's McConaughey just being
48:18
like McConaughey and he's super charming and like, man, I miss
48:22
Matthew McConaughey. I'm going to watch a bunch of
48:24
McConaughey movies and I was just like ripping through him.
48:26
I was like, all right, let me watch Interstellar.
48:28
Still great. Let me watch A time to kill.
48:31
Still great. Let me watch Lincoln Lawyer.
48:32
Lincoln Lawyers are incredible. So much fun.
48:37
But that ends up do do you do that same thing where like you
48:40
just end up hooked into like, all right, these are the movies
48:42
I'm going to watch right now. Yeah, I generally do it if I'm
48:45
watching the first film in a film series, like if I watched
48:49
Saw, for example, then I mean I'm watching the rest of them
48:53
back-to-back until I get to the end.
48:54
Always do that. Did you do that for Dead
48:58
Reckoning? Were you like, I'm going to
49:00
rewatch all the mission impossibles?
49:01
Yes. Before I go.
49:03
Mm hmm, did that for the last one as well.
49:05
It's such an investment. It just, but it makes it like I
49:09
would have, I would have forgot all about Kit Ridge, for
49:11
example. Yeah, like I would have forgot
49:13
about him. Yeah.
49:14
But then he shows up in Dead Reckoning and I was like, oh, I
49:17
from the first one. Holy.
49:18
Shit like this was just. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:22
It's so much fun, man. Movies are the best.
49:25
Incredible. I always do.
49:27
When I me and my wife went to LA in November, so it was about 6
49:33
months before we went away of just watching films set in LA.
49:37
That was it. That was the agenda really.
49:39
There's no deviation from it. That's what we're watching and I
49:42
don't care. Which which ones did you RIP
49:44
through? Which one?
49:45
Not all of them. Which one stood out to you as
49:47
like? I don't remember this being this
49:48
good. Yeah, well, training Day was one
49:51
of them, but it wasn't like, I don't remember being that good.
49:54
It was. It is such a gritty LA
49:57
experience, and you don't really know that until you've been the
50:02
place to live and die in LA. Freaking to live and die in LA
50:06
was, oh, wild. But oh, man, he died a couple of
50:09
days ago. Devastating.
50:11
Yeah, yeah, that was that was pretty sucky.
50:14
There was the Hal Ashby one and Christ, 10 Million Ways to Die
50:20
86, maybe 87. That's that's real sleazy.
50:24
Love that. Yeah.
50:28
Nightcrawler, Jake Gyllenhaal. Oh my God.
50:30
That's incredible. Jake Gyllenhaal right there.
50:33
Yeah, amazing. So I just went through that for
50:36
easy six months and I didn't get sick and then I was really, it
50:40
was relatable when I visited as well.
50:43
It's, it's cool to do like if you're doing those and you're
50:46
like, all right, I'm gonna do Nightcrawler tonight.
50:48
And you watch it, you're like, this place seems awful.
50:51
And then you watch like La La land and you're like, man, what
50:54
magic? I want to beat it.
50:56
And then like gone in 60 seconds or whatever.
50:59
It's just like, how do they do that?
51:01
How do they make the the cities feel the same city feel like all
51:05
of these different, different pieces.
51:06
Yeah. Dangerous and exotic and
51:08
exciting and enticing all in once.
51:11
It's amazing. What fun?
51:14
I haven't heard you on the The Rewatchables for a while.
51:17
Obviously I know you've been super busy.
51:19
It's, I mean, it's a great show, great podcast.
51:22
What's what's going on there? Will you be making any
51:25
appearances? I love the the Rewatchables.
51:28
I'll go on there if they ask me to go on there.
51:29
That's usually how it works is they'll just be like, hey, you
51:31
want to pop up and, and, and do this movie?
51:34
I worked at the Ringer for six years and it was like maybe my
51:39
favorite job that I've ever had. It's just like a bunch of really
51:42
smart, talented people making really cool stuff and doing the
51:47
re watchables is is is so much fun.
51:49
I still listen to it all the time.
51:51
I think my favorite version of the show is when when they do a
51:55
movie that like, oh, I love this movie.
51:57
Like I got mentioned, I was doing the McConaughey thing and
51:59
then they did a time to kill and it was it was Bill and Wesley
52:04
and I was like, well, fire. I got to I got to do this now.
52:07
And like, just listening to smart people talk about movies
52:10
is like one of my favorite things to do.
52:12
Yeah. I love it.
52:14
All I want is for them to do the movies that I love and I just
52:16
want to listen to my my absolute favorite bit that they do now.
52:22
I'm just like listening to the show because I just can't wait
52:24
to get to this is at the end when Chris is on it, Chris Ryan
52:27
and he does the the Wayne Jenkins thing every time.
52:31
It makes me laugh every single, every single time.
52:34
They did they did Alien and he does Wayne Jenkins and alien and
52:39
the aliens and and I was like, all right, I got it.
52:41
I got it. I got to pull my car over for a
52:44
second and just replay this, this bit.
52:46
It's so fucking funny, dude. It's so good.
52:49
Yeah, it is great. I think the last time that I
52:51
heard you're on there was Tango and Cash, which I was kind of
52:56
woman. That was going to be one of your
52:57
choices. Oh, Tango and Cash is is top
53:00
level, top level Stallone, top level Curt, just great 80s
53:06
action movie. So what's next then, Shay?
53:09
What have you got going on? Any new books?
53:12
Anything you're working on? Man, I don't have anything going
53:15
on right now because we're still on strike.
53:17
The Writers Guild for Hollywood, still on strike.
53:20
We're on strike now with the with the actors.
53:22
Yeah, today is officially 100 days and we're not doing any
53:25
work until they give us a fair deal.
53:28
So I'm just sitting around watching movies, going through
53:32
all of the all the right movies Twitter threads.
53:35
That's my favorite. Like I love, I love when that
53:37
pops up and it's be like Predator came out and John
53:41
Mctiernan, like great, whatever, whatever.
53:43
But the story behind it is even bigger.
53:44
And I'm like, let's fucking go, let's go.
53:47
I know it's about to be 2525 tweets for me to read.
53:51
And like it always sends you off into like offshoots of other
53:54
stuff you want to you want to find.
53:56
I think y'all are doing a y'all are doing great work over there.
53:59
Thank you. That's all I'm doing is just
54:00
hanging out with y'all and reading all y'all stuff.
54:03
Cool, well, hopefully the door strikes will resolve soon and.
54:07
Come on. Come on.
54:08
Yeah, I'm a I'm a massive fan cheer and I really love your
54:11
work. So yeah, hopefully we'll get
54:13
something soon. I appreciate that this is a lot
54:15
of fun. I thank you for having me on.
54:17
Ah, it's an absolute pleasure. Thanks for coming on.
54:19
I hope all goes well with the book and everything goes well in
54:22
the future. Me too.
54:23
All right. Bye bye.
54:31
Big thanks to Cher for coming on the show.
54:33
Don't forget to check out the action hero scouting report on
54:35
halfwaybooks com. As for all the right movies, our
54:39
latest podcast on classic and hit films is on Fight Club.
54:41
That came out last week, and next week we're talking about
54:44
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55:52
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