Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Executive Decision (1996) - Stuart Baird | Houselights #177

Transcript

Executive Decision (1996) - Stuart Baird | Houselights #177 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

0:03
Welcome to the ned Party. Welcome back to House Lights, our director discussion
0:23
show here on the Nerd Party Network. We're entering a new house today with
0:27
the small House of director Stuart Baird and his directorial debut, nineteen ninety six's
0:33
Executive Decision. I'm oddly mission specific aviation engineer Darren Moser, and I'm join
0:39
again by my friends Captain John Cappy Mills and US Air Marshal Tristan Riddell.
0:46
This is the only way I want to transiend Atlantic flight. So we're going
0:51
to talk about executive decision. Yes, are the same airline. I love
0:58
this, I just I just want to say, I want to get it
1:00
out of the way, the same airline that they crash with on Lost.
1:03
So that was the first thing my wife said. She walked into the room
1:08
right when I right when they get off the of the runway, and she's
1:14
like, oh, hey Lost. Yes, And then she left the road
1:18
she said, yes it ever sit down, and then she's like, I
1:21
don't remember this part. This is the prequel, baby, baby, this
1:25
is the prequel. We wondered why the plane crashed. It was an executive
1:30
decision. She like, probably seventy five percent of the time. She'll watch
1:36
house Lights movies with me. Yeah, but she I said. I was
1:40
like, oh, right, so I need to watch a movie before or
1:42
Sunday, and and she's like, well, which one are you watching?
1:46
I was like, executive decision with Kurt Russell, Okay, Halle Berry okay,
1:49
Steven Seagal no oh, but it's like film. She's barely in it.
1:59
I know. It was my mistake. It was my mistake. You
2:02
should have said she would have sat down and then been happy when he died.
2:07
There you go, you could have said. Veteran character actor J.
2:10
T. Walsh makes an appearance. D W B. D Wong makes it
2:15
as a big Father of the Bride fan. There you go. And Jurassic
2:19
Park. He doesn't love Jurassic Park. Commies, godless commies, that's who.
2:23
That's true. That's true. Well, this movie we watched actually together
2:29
last year. We tried to gather around the internet to watch something every once
2:34
in a while. And I love this movie, guys. I mean,
2:38
I'm just gonna say, right off the top, I'm giving this a five.
2:40
I can't not. I got major nostalgia glasses, major. I just
2:46
love. I watched this movie like a month ago, and I'm like,
2:47
I'm still gonna watch it today. I love this movie so much. But
2:52
John, we that time we watched it together, I think was the first
2:54
time you saw it. Oh no, no, no, no, I
3:00
saw I saw this in the movie theater with Joey the Oh. I thought
3:02
that was your first time to Oh my god, Joey story, I need
3:06
to hear it now. I'm sorry now, Joey, I'm sure hated it
3:08
when he no Joey, Joey has the weird man crush for Kurt Russell as
3:15
all sane rational men do, and like, yeah, right exactly. But
3:20
like we went into it like super low expectations because Steven Sagall was in the
3:23
ad campaign. It was like, Okay, this is gonna suck, but
3:27
whatever. The first five minutes of the movie and that was it, and
3:30
you're like, yeah, it's like yeah, whatever, that's fine, okay,
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And you go in and like, you know, Steven Sagall dies.
3:35
You're like, oh damn, all right, let's let's get this thing happening.
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But not only does he die, we see him get sucked out.
3:43
Oh yeah, he's not offscreen dead. He did dead. No no chance,
3:46
no chance whatsoever. But like we uh yeah, it was one of
3:51
those ones where we were pleasantly surprised. We went and we watched it and
3:53
we were like, I was actually had a pretty good time with that one.
3:57
It's like, yeah, Kurt Russell had something to do with that.
3:59
Yeah, probably proa cool cool. So we'd all seen it before last year,
4:02
but it was watching it. It's a fun movie to watch together.
4:05
Oh yeah, it is. It is this one. I'm surprised, actually,
4:10
I don't know if there isn't, but I'm surprised if there isn't a
4:13
riff tracks of this movie, because this this would have been perfect one.
4:18
But it does feel like the right kind. So so my first viewing this
4:24
was a Blockbuster rental, and I think because I remember that that cover,
4:29
the bright reddish you know, you have the tail fin of the airplane and
4:33
a giant Kurt Russell head, and I just remember being like, I don't
4:38
think it's the best cover. I think you could do a better cover.
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That kind of tells what this movie is about. Uh no, no,
4:42
no, no, this this movie, this, this movie cover told you
4:46
everything you needed to know. We got Kurt Russell's face, we got the
4:50
f one seventeen. But we got a crew of commandos at the sunset.
4:57
That's all you need, man, that's all you need to celebrate. All
5:00
you need to put butts in the seats. You're you're not wrong. Yeah.
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So I remember picking this up, and I mean I own it.
5:05
It's probably one of the first DVDs I own. It has like the cardboard
5:12
front of the shell, like the cheap ones they made, but the yeah,
5:18
the plastic clasp, the plastic class with the cardboard. Yeah, I
5:23
think I have one with like Twister in that version, which I think was
5:26
like the first thing that would ever post my Matrix DVD was that was that
5:30
way it was. So I've been having having this one for a long time.
5:35
Yeah. Love this movie. It's so fun. I will say I
5:40
recently showed it to my wife, who resisted watching it for a long time.
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We have a tradition. I don't know where it came from, but
5:48
on Valentine's Day, I get to pick the movie and she can't say no,
5:54
And so often I now turn that into showing her guy flicks that she
5:58
can't say no to. The reason she didn't want to watch this is we
6:01
are huge David suche fans watching him in Agatha Christie's Parrot, and so for
6:08
her, she's like, I don't want to watch David Susha be the bad
6:12
guy. It's like watching Dick van Dyke be the bad guy or like someone
6:15
you're just so wholesome that you're used to And I'm like, okay, fair,
6:19
but I love this movie. So we're still gonna watch it. And
6:23
you know, she she survived, but it was it's it's a guy movie
6:26
for sure. You know. I want to say, I was, I
6:30
no, I show this to my eight year old and you know, every
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so often, remember remember don't say that word, honey that yeah, yeah,
6:39
don't say that word. Yeah. Decision oh. And explaining to her
6:45
how you know, she's like, so how do they make the fake blood?
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She actually asked me. She's like, so how do they make the
6:48
fake blood work? I was like, oh, okay, honey, and
6:51
like I went, I was like, yeah, She's said, kids today
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are savvy, they get it. But to your point about being like,
6:59
you know, like quote unquote like guy flick. Grandpa was in the house
7:01
too, everybody else was out, and Grandpa's like, nah, I don't
7:04
want to watch a movie. With you. Yeah, I'm gonna do with
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my crosswords, right, but that sweet siren song of the movie, and
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he like stood in the doorway. I'm like, let me pull you up
7:15
a chair there, Grandpa. He's like, yeah, I think I was
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this and he like watched the last the back three quarters of it. You're
7:21
talking about Jerry Goldsmith's score. No, just the sound like the gunfire in
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Kurt Russell's voice and okay, he just heard it and he was like,
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oh, you know, he like it triggered something in his old soul that
7:35
was like must watch movie, right, and he comes over. It's that
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trumpet fanfare. It's got to be. But what's yeah, I think so.
7:44
But like, what's funny is you're talking about, Oh, you didn't
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want to watch David Suchet laid into the movie. My eight year old Kurt
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Russell's there. He's got his his flak jacket on. It's unzipped and you
7:57
know, so it's vest like he's got the white shirt. And she get
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and she says, he looks a lot like Han Solo And I said,
8:03
he does, doesn't he, honey? And she says and then she says
8:07
at the end, but his voice is wrong for it, and I said
8:09
to myself, I looked at her, I said, well, you know,
8:11
honey, he actually tested for the role of Han Solo and she said
8:16
yeah, and she just reiterated his voice was wrong for it. But I
8:20
think that was really slick on her part, where she picked up that he
8:24
that Kurt Russell has that same sort of on screen swagger that Harrison Ford does,
8:30
and I'm like, that's you know, that's a pretty smart kid.
8:33
I mean, will to stay on Kurt Russel for one second. Yeah,
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there is moment in this movie where the I guess Santa Claus Kurt Russell kind
8:45
of comes out the happy Kurt Russell, specifically when he recognizes twenty one K
8:52
and they're so freaking excited that they read the number off of her head or
8:58
hand correctly, like nine. Kay. I'm like, okay, guy,
9:01
chill life and death. Calm down, it's okay. A couple of times
9:07
throughout this movie that reaction was a little baffling while we're watching it a little
9:11
much. There was a few times when in this movie I'm like, did
9:16
you forget that they're the terrorists are right above you? Yeah, Like we
9:22
have an Ann Frank situation going on here and you're screaming for the Nazis to
9:26
come and find you. The suspension of disbelief of how how they are not
9:31
heard is kind of the first thing you have to turn on in this movie,
9:33
because they are climbing, clanking, cutting, doing all sorts of things,
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and you're like, there's no way in a paper airplane that they that
9:43
the passengers are not hearing things going on. You know, you just spend
9:48
that You're okay, I once you suspend the disbelief that absolutely nobody will notice
9:54
the little camera coming through the little pinhole that I'm I'm hyper aware of every
10:00
thing on an airplane because I hate to fly hot there before it as a
10:01
hole in something that seems strange. Oh dear, I was just sad that
10:07
you guys brought all this up, because one thing that really bugs me about
10:11
airplanes in movies, like I'm talking about commercial airplanes, is how freakin' quiet
10:18
they are. Like it is not quiet whatsoever. It's like a little bit
10:22
of a background hump, but a little and you're like, no, you
10:24
can't hear yourself. Think no, Like if I'm talking to the person right
10:28
next to me, I practically have to scream, and I'm still not bothering
10:31
anyone around me because I'm screaming, and it's just, yeah, that's just
10:37
the AMPI and convincing you of that. But we'll let dress out on it
10:39
later. That's true. I do fly heavily drugged. After the hole is
10:46
made in the airplane, you're not hearing anything. You're hearing jet engine the
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whole rest of the time. I don't care where you are on that plane.
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There's nothing you can hear. But oh, I'll give credits the eight
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year old again because you know he oh, well, he went upstairs.
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So there's no pressure problems with the hole that's been punched in the plane.
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Everything's quiet and everything true. And she actually says she actually says to me,
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why isn't the air what like, did did they close anything? And
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I said, just roll. I actually said to my child, just roll
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with it, honey, it's fine. And she did. She was just
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like, that's fine. Also, like when the when the whatever the sleeve
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I think is what they called it was connecting to, yeah, the pressure
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adapter for the F one seventeen, when they said, like we're losing pressure
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and we actually see daylight peek in. Yeah, I'm like, if you're
11:35
seeing daylight, I think you've already lost its God. Yeah, it's a
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very quick sort of thing. It doesn't really it's not like a slow sort
11:45
of like, oh there's a leak, it's eh. Yeah. But but
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that's the thing is, that's one of the things that I think is so
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lovable about this movie is it is I think I don't think it's intentional.
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I think that this is a first time director who's just he is showing that
12:03
he is technically minded and absolutely not artistically minded. He's going to get the
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shot, he's going to print it. He's and he's like, I'm going
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to go into the editing bay with my editor after this because that's where I
12:15
like to be. And I think that there are so many problems with this
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script when you take a second go, you know, and other directors would
12:24
have found a way not to have it be a problem. But I think
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that Baird, this is he he lucks out because he gets such an incredible
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cast. We talk about Kurt Russell, we talk about casting, but you
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got you know, we already mentioned j T. Wall. You get Hallie
12:41
Barry before she's a like mega star with X men, but she was still
12:45
a respected actress. You get. I always forget the actress's name, but
12:48
she was like a staple of Richard Donner movies of the late eighties and early
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nineties. The Blonde who Maryelin. All, Yeah, she gets engaged just
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so she can die very early in the story, so that we carry love
13:00
Mary Ellen trainer. And I was genuinely disturbed when she died. I was
13:05
just like you emotionally manipulated me. And it worked. And it absolutely was
13:11
bad because because the moment, the moment that she opens up the wedding present,
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you're like, oh God, she's gonna die. She's going to die
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so hard, you know, mcpain, I'm looking forward to my retirement.
13:22
I just bought myself a boat. Like that's that moment. You're like,
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all right, you're dead. Yeah, But that's that's the thing is like
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the script is the script has all of these problems. There is something magical
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that still happens regardless of how many stars you give this thing where there are
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no power watch in this script, John, there is a perfect bad I
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miss the nineties, So it is this nineties movie through and through, like
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because something about it, like we again. You're not wrong, John,
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there are issues, but you I don't know that nineties gloss kind of you
14:00
know, you can kind of just be like, you know what, I
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was entertained. I don't care. That's about the little issues. It was
14:07
so entertaining and there wasn't a giant plot hole or a huge issue. It
14:13
got me through what it needed to and then I'm just enjoying it. Okay,
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I'm so glad that you guys brought that up because I want to mention
14:20
something and as we're all Star Wars fans, this will hit home. Somebody
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online posted a picture of the original Emperor from Empire Strikes Back and then the
14:31
special edition Emperor, which is played by mc darmond. Yeah, so the
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hologram shot from him, the hologram thank you, the hologram shot when Vader's
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talking, you know, to the hologram of the Emperor, and somebody it
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was a young person who was posting it and said like, hey, you
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know, like, do you guys like people who saw this in the theaters
14:50
in the eighties, you know, did you ever wonder what the explanation was
14:56
for why he looked so different in Empire to how he looked in return the
15:00
and I and the and the top comment was, well, back in the
15:03
day, we had a thing that doesn't exist anymore, and it's the suspension
15:07
of disbelief. Also, we had I mean, honestly, we had time
15:11
passing between movies, and the way they did up mcdarmodd was as close as
15:16
they could get. And people didn't have Empire on videotape, so they weren't
15:18
sitting there, you know, watching it five thousand times being like, well,
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what's what the discrepancy here? Like by the time people came back in
15:24
eighty three to that exact point you're making, though, Tristan, that wasn't
15:30
Ian mcderman in the theatrical of Empire. It was like it was a completely
15:35
different the voiceless person. Yeah, it was Clive Revel. Yeah. Hey,
15:39
look everybody there goes the point what I'm trying to say, Hey,
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you use the example that derailed us. You take full credit for this,
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and I am not taking any blane. You know what, You're right?
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I brought up a Star Wars fact with a literal A person from the literal
15:56
five oh, first is suspend disbelief. That's that's what the last thing you
16:00
said, and then we're like, you're right, Tristan, You're right.
16:06
Yes, different actor played him. We were fine with it. It was
16:08
no big deal. Yeah, you know what. A better example and these
16:15
weren't tied together as much sequels and actually cinematic universes. That wasn't Oh Jesus
16:22
no, I was going to say. Even better. Even better example would
16:26
be we were all we all rolled with it when Maggie Jillenhall came in in
16:30
the dark night to replace Katie Holmes, fully like three or four feet taller
16:34
and completely different facial struck. That's a worse example because it takes place a
16:38
perfect after the nineties, and we weren't all on board, right, it's
16:41
a it's a perfect example because I have a weird uh crush on Maggie Gillenhall.
16:47
So I have found an excuse of talking. You heard crush on her?
16:49
I do. It's moving on, Darren. One thing I want to
16:52
mention Batman to salvage this conversation is that executive visician was an old Riddell family
17:00
favor. Oh yeah, and I want to care about that. And so
17:03
the thing is, though it was not a worldwide or I should say universal
17:07
family favorite. It was half the family. It was me and my dad
17:11
who really liked it. And you know, John's talking about showing it to
17:14
his eight year old. I was ten when this came out, and Dad
17:18
was showing it to me on VHS and he straight up bought it. He's
17:22
like, because he saw the cover. He didn't see in the theater.
17:27
He saw Kurt Fao with an F one seventeen. He's like, yoink,
17:33
And he showed it to me. Of course he watched it first, but
17:37
he's just like, oh, it gets a little violent at the end,
17:38
but it's no big deal. He's like, a couple of people get shot,
17:41
No big deal. I mean, there's no sexuality. It's just blood
17:44
and language. Really, and they only use the F word once. You
17:47
know, It's really not that. It's not a hard r at all.
17:49
But the thing is, my mom walks in right during the surprise scene where
17:56
they cut out the lights and they kill all the terrorists, so the blood
18:00
takes place, yeah, and so like right when she walks in, like
18:03
he and I are watching it, and she walks in and she her face
18:08
basically got red with anger, and I she was so mad at my dad
18:15
and She's like, what are you showing him? And like this is while
18:19
everything's going on, this is what she's saying this wile John leg was Amo
18:23
is just lighting a dude up, and and my dad got a little embarrassed
18:29
and so we got defensive. He said, He's like, she's like,
18:30
it's no big deal. He's like, he sees worst stuff on TV.
18:37
Do you know how embarrassed I am right now because I had to go double
18:40
check. I thought this movie was PG thirteen. It is not PG thirteen.
18:44
I thought it was PG thirteen, and even watching it for this show,
18:48
I thought it was PG thirteen. I was like, Eh, there's
18:51
nothing in this. It says hard art to me. I'm dead serious,
18:53
Like maybe I we all know that I grew up with I know, but
18:59
like I wouldn't even rate Like if this came out now, this is like
19:02
PG practically, like it'sour terms, this is this is PGB basically like yeah,
19:08
this is this is very low level stuff. And you know, all
19:12
of us on our text chain, you know, we talked about like the
19:15
language that's used in it, and they have one F word. I do
19:19
believe that if this was if this was made today, it would have been
19:22
rate at PG. Thirteen and because Americans have no problem with violence, but
19:26
we have a problem with the F word, and they have one F word,
19:30
and I think they used it wisely. I really do. When I
19:33
think it's it's cappy saying it's an effing decoy, it's perfect yeah, because
19:37
he's really upset and he's like and he's got a yeah. I Kapy is
19:42
also really resilient. I'm just gonna say with that neck intry because I mean
19:49
put something. He's immobilized, He's okay the situation, I would be okay
19:59
and able to to difuse a bomb he had he had morphine in his system,
20:03
and he had morphine, he had his mirror. That's right. He
20:08
could totally read this complex bomb design backwards. But that's that's the thing that
20:12
I love. And never mind the editing mistake that it shows that the meter
20:17
is like all the way over on one end when it's supposed to be dead
20:21
center, and it's like, let it roll, But how do I work?
20:25
One thing I got little error was when they're first searching for the bomb,
20:30
and that he stabs into the luggage compartment. You can see the glued
20:36
two other takes that were slashed into the blue and I never noticed it before.
20:41
I'm like, oh, I bet you d to do this a couple
20:42
of times because I could see right there. We're take one and take two,
20:48
and we're on take three, and then we do see that shot reversed
20:51
later when he's still checking for the bomb. For me, apparently this the
20:56
cinematographer was replaced. Oh that's right, Like he wasn't moving fast enough.
21:02
Yeah, he wasn't moving fast enough, like maybe like halfway through he got
21:06
replaced by I think Silver. I think Joel Silver was just like you,
21:10
you were taking too long. This is too crazy. We need to go
21:12
faster, which is totally a Silver thing to do. Like I'm saying,
21:18
like I know him, but total, you know, classic Joel. He
21:26
gets off the hook sometimes. I mean to the cinematography then, because you
21:30
know, we'll jump around. There's lots of fun aspects of this movie to
21:33
talk about, but I mean it's it's well lit. I never feel like
21:37
I can't tell where I am on the plane at any moment, or it's
21:41
too dark, like I can't see anything, like I know when I'm in
21:44
baggage. I'm not like we see maps of this plane like a lot.
21:48
There are a lot of maps. There's a lot of explanation, like he's
21:52
even he's given us a PowerPoint presentation. As they're setting up. Here are
21:56
two bad guys in the nose check like it's very clear, Oh, there's
22:03
where we're going, a lot of credits as far as that goes. There
22:06
are definitely parts though where and this is just the only clumsy way I can
22:11
ever think to describe it, But there are moments where it feels like it's
22:14
shot for TV, where it's just too bright from above and I like that.
22:19
And it's like there's one scene in specific, I think what you're talking
22:22
about, when Kurt Russell sitting at the computer and marking off you know,
22:26
he's like, you know, he's doing whatever the circuit the thing like they
22:30
did in Diehard where they were doing the circuit bypasses and everything like that.
22:34
And he's sitting there in front of the computer and the lights from overhead don't
22:38
even match other shots while he's sitting there, and I'm like, you know,
22:42
it's like, obviously somebody did get replaced, so wasn't necessarily going what
22:47
it lacks in atmospherics. It makes up for in close ups, because by
22:52
god, this movie has a lot of really awesome close ups. You want
22:56
to see this wire being cut. It's gonna be the most amazing closes.
22:59
You want to see that. But on the trigger you're gonna see that,
23:02
you want to see like it it, which lends, which lends itself to
23:07
what John was saying, is a very TV kind of atmosphere, like when
23:12
you have I I like I. I liked the way that it was shot,
23:17
you know, like I liked it felt nineties, It felt and I'm
23:21
not this is such a bad word, but it's It wasn't stylistic, it
23:26
was utilitarian. They got the job done. They showed you what they needed
23:30
to show you, and that, sorry I was gonna say, I think
23:36
that's actually part of the charm of the movie is that speaks to its very
23:41
nature of look, we all know why we're here. Let's not let's not
23:47
belabor this. I'm not going to try to trick you into thinking I've made
23:48
some sort of art house film here. I am here to tell you a
23:52
story in about two hours that that's supposed to excite you. What I think
23:57
is odd, I'm not odd. Necessarily, I think it was inevitable that
24:00
Stuart Baird is also listed as one of the editors, because obviously he just
24:04
couldn't keep himself out of the editing bay. But boy, the opening of
24:08
this movie is so clumsy in a lot of ways, it's so clumsy.
24:12
I will I'm glad you brought that up. The flashback, the weird taking
24:18
of Jaffa like it Jafa and Hassan that was there was clearly a sequence that
24:26
they shot and planned to put in the beginning of the film, and that
24:30
that they didn't know where why Baird has a credit. I bet you that
24:36
is what the complete conjecture. But I bet you that's why Baird has an
24:38
editing credit. Where they this movie was a half an hour longer. Prob
24:44
Silver's like, no, this needs to be under the two hour limits so
24:47
we can get more showings and get as an actual sequence. And then they're
24:52
like, oh, you need this to be almost a memory of like while
24:56
we're over here, this is happening over here, and then we keep moving
24:59
because if you look, if you look at the shots and the explosions and
25:03
the cars going up and everything like that, like money was spent on this,
25:07
like make it black and white and make it ten times shorter. Well,
25:11
this was not a second unit kind of scene that they did. No,
25:15
you had to use that footage too, Like that was the thing where
25:18
it's like short in the movie, but we need to use this footage.
25:21
There is no if, if or anything. I wish I could go back.
25:26
I swear, I swear some of those shots were from Patriot Games or
25:33
clearly have a very Patriot Games. Well, this whole movie it feels like
25:37
die Hard. It feels like, you know, a Tom Clancy, very
25:42
Tom God. David Grant is totally Jack Ryan. This movie could have been
25:48
a Jack Ryan movie. It's like, oh, you caught me in this
25:51
tuxedo and I will be wearing at the entire rest of this movie, Like
25:53
as the analyst is pulled into the action, like that is that is a
25:57
Tom Yeah? That movie. I think the clumsiness of the beginning definitely lends
26:03
itself to It feels too long to match up with getting ready to go after
26:08
the flight. I remember sitting there and I think one of the worst decisions
26:14
they made was having the the F one seventeen Q up in a top gun
26:18
esque sort of shot with that Tony Scott look to it because I'm sitting there
26:23
saying, wait, what is it a day late? Is this tomorrow?
26:27
Like, what's happening right now? I was like, they're going from Greece
26:30
to Dulles? Is it sunset already? Wait? Right? You guys really
26:37
wasted a lot of time fueling up, like what's going on here? I
26:41
felt the exact same way, John, I'm glad that you brought that up.
26:45
Yeah, this was okay. So this is basically the same structure as
26:49
Air Force One. It is this movie which what was Air Force One?
26:55
Then when did Air Force one come out? Was it ninety eight? I
26:59
want to say pretty sure it's after this? Oh yeah, it was definitely
27:03
after this. It's contemporary too though, it's definitely it was ninety seven.
27:07
Oh it is the next year. It was ninety seven, so they were
27:08
probably making it at the same time. So this is basically the same structure
27:14
as Air Force One. When when you've seen this film, you've basically seen
27:15
Air First one, that's where the president was. He wasn't here in this
27:19
movie, so he was off having the Air Force one adventure. Yeah.
27:23
One thing, but one thing that I appreciate about Air Force one even though
27:29
it's several stories. Is is that at the beginning you have so they basically
27:34
they got Jaffa, you know, in Air Force one, like we see
27:37
the seals pick him up, boom, he's picked up. We see the
27:41
president in Russia give his speech, so we established the character of the president.
27:45
Then he gets on Air Force one, and then we have the movie.
27:48
We have it's basically two scenes. We have the hostile location and then
27:55
character development boom movie. This movie, executive discison would have benefited from a
28:00
little bit more streamlined opening. Yes, of the hostage Kurt Russell plane.
28:08
Well, and not only the hostage, because we had before that we have
28:14
the cold open, which is the bad intel and that's pretty much just there
28:19
to establish why Austin Travis doesn't like him, like that is the reason for
28:26
that sequence, and it's like it's kind of character. But it's a lot
28:30
of time to waste on character development for a character that's going to die and
28:33
not in it. Totally could have been cut. Totally could have been cut,
28:37
although steven Sagall's miss would have been very unhappy about that, I think,
28:42
but that speaks to I think the I mean, what's difficult is you
28:47
could sit there and you could blame like I would. I'm like, oh,
28:48
well, the script could have been reworked. But I honestly I think
28:52
that they had to your point dress in a longer opening, a longer build,
28:57
and then it just got cut down to nothing. And that's why it
29:02
feels so weird. Is Stuart Bear on the plane is golden? But yeah,
29:07
getting there? Yeah, it's just it's harder. It is. It
29:11
is harder, and that's the that's the thing that's that's tough is I think
29:15
the first time you watch it, it's easy to forgive it because you get
29:21
there quick enough and they they they follow the rule of an action movie.
29:25
Just get to the action as fast as you can. Boom, we're off
29:27
and running. But then when you watch it a few more times, you're
29:30
like, yeah, okay, I gotta be honest with myself, this could
29:34
have gone better. Guys. And when we're remembering it, when we're thinking
29:37
back of it, I I don't think of the first part, right.
29:41
I almost am surprised every time when I rewatch I'm like, oh, yeah,
29:44
this part I forgot about it because once we get to the on the
29:47
night Hawk, we're good. Yea, So yeah, no, it's yeah,
29:52
no, it's now let's let's let's go around now again. We'll stop
29:57
on budget for a second, because we usually talk about that. This did
30:02
decent fifty five million budget and one hundred and twenty two million box office,
30:07
and I'm pretty sure it did well in the DVD market. So yeah,
30:11
it's not a failure by Oh no, it's it's it's actually it's a good
30:14
success. It more than doubled its budget, meaning it covered all of its
30:17
marketing nineties. That's great. Yeah, one hundred million was considered a blockbuster
30:22
back then. That's right. And although I think we, I think post
30:26
Titanic, we started getting a little greedy about what our yeah success metric was.
30:32
Yeah, but it really is one of those things where I think budget
30:37
wise, it did exactly what it's supposed to do. I don't think they
30:41
had any any sort of aspirational idea that this was going to become a next
30:45
genre shifting die Hard sort of. They weren't trying to make a new Tom
30:51
Clancy but not Tom Clancy, you know what I mean. Or but it's
30:53
best at both worlds because you get one of the producers from die Hard,
30:56
you have Diehard on a plane. But then you but then you also have
31:03
the seal team on there, so you also have that vibe of a Tomancymando
31:08
or you know, kind of an Artole picture. Yeah, no, it's
31:11
I mean yes, on paper, concept is absolutely ridiculous, Like a seal
31:17
team boards with a you know, a new prototype plane to overcome hijacking.
31:22
Well, makes no sense, but it doesn't matter because it's awesome, and
31:26
so I'm just gonna roll with it. I would love to think that my
31:30
government would go to those great lengths to make sure my plane didn't get shot
31:34
out of the sky. However, the synate could be says, if I
31:38
were on that plane, I would just make peace with the Lord because I'm
31:42
not landing and I'm not making it halfway across the Atlantic either. I'm just
31:47
going down and then they'll invent some story about whatever. And it's like,
31:52
I mean, the thing is though, but to talk about what you talked
31:55
about the Ludacris saying, even the concept of how the ta errorist is going
32:00
to deliver all of this nerve gas is a ludicrous concept to begin with.
32:06
This is to blow up in the air or something over DC. I guess
32:09
yes, this is the clunkiest, dumbest possible way you could try to disperse
32:14
this nerve, like you're pretty much guaranteeing that you would just get shot down.
32:21
The simple fact that he's in the air to be taken out by the
32:23
seal team is a movie thing. It's that plane's just exploded by They're like,
32:30
oh, look and he has all this stuff on it. Great,
32:30
shoot it down like that's it. That's all that happens, and so you
32:34
really have to go along for the ride. And but that I think is
32:38
what makes it fun is because it does embrace that whole mustache twirling. Although
32:45
they had Siouche without a mustache, because I suppose he would have looked too
32:47
much like you can't put a mustache on him in this movie. That's not
32:52
going to work. But it you know, Yeah, that's what makes it
32:54
fun is it's like, look, we all know this isn't isn't ever going
32:58
to be real. And I love the fact that they use the stewardess cover
33:04
to have halle Berry have a role because she helps land the plane. And
33:09
I think it's the next year we had the movie Turbulence. Where was it
33:15
Lauren? Was it Lauren Holly lands the plane in that one, the one
33:17
with Lorae Liota, and that that one's a peach if you want, if
33:22
you want stretching believability, this is one hundred percent documentary fact compared to turbulence.
33:28
So we're good. Well yeah, I mean yeah, I mean besides,
33:31
but I think, like we said at the very beginning, there's the
33:35
suspension of disbelief, there's the gloss of the mid nineties of an it's an
33:39
enjoyable story, like I don't care if it's not factually possible or anything like
33:45
that. You know, I love you know, I mean, I have
33:49
a whole list of like little moments I love. I love the trumpet playing
33:53
when Rat shows the USA patch on his jacket, Like it's so corny,
33:59
but I love it because it's just like America is here, we are here
34:02
to like take back the plane, and I'm just like, that's awesome.
34:06
That's such a cool shot. In the nineties, we were all thrilled with
34:09
the fall of the Berlin Wall and we were like, we're the super people.
34:13
We nobody can stop us now, and so this slots right into that
34:16
mood. But you know, it's it's also one of those things where you
34:23
know, you talk about that moment, there's a moment at the end that
34:27
is so movie but I love it that and it's inevitable where all the guys
34:31
as they're loading Cappy rather clumsily into the ambulance and they all salute him.
34:37
Wait, hey, guys, stop, don't finish putting me in the ambulance.
34:42
Wait while I'm tilted at a forty five degree ago because we want to
34:45
make eye contact with our bro over there. Yeah, totally Like halle Berry
34:53
in helle Berry, it was just like, hey, you want to go
34:55
to the Pentagon, Like you mean, she's not going to be debriefed,
34:59
like they're to ask her questions about the interactions. Like I'm like, wait
35:04
a minute, So you're they're gonna let you guys outside of this perimeter.
35:07
No, No, they're not. Now see this is where you have to
35:10
go out of the box. Thinking he was actually tricking her to get in
35:14
there so that they could take her off to be interrogated in a black site
35:19
somewhere off you know, off black US soil. By that point in the
35:22
very end, we're just shy of hearing. You know. The weather outside
35:27
was frightful as the end of die Hard. It's it is the end of
35:30
die Hard. It like, it's not even trying to not be the end
35:35
of die Hard. So with one thing that always bugs me is that the
35:40
last line in this movie is an inside joke. Oh the baseball one.
35:45
Yeah, Because like when I was a kid and I watched this, I
35:49
was like, what the hell does that mean? And he's like, oh,
35:53
at the time, she was she's married to she's married. I was
35:59
like, wait, she's going to a baseball player, but yes, she's
36:00
flirting with with Kurrels And like, no, halle Berry, you realize I
36:07
never knew that until this moment. You never didn't, not until this moment,
36:09
So like, how I hate you At the end, I just thought
36:14
it was crappy writing because they wanted to end it like die Hard. I
36:16
was like, it was crappy writing. It was It was a wink to
36:20
the audience that did not matter, and it was so off putting. I
36:24
hated how that ended because it should have ended with him saying, hey,
36:28
do you like hockey because it's a callback to him, and then hitting on
36:31
the previous woman's because he's always hitting on every and the one that said yes,
36:37
he got taken away for this mission. And he's like, oh,
36:39
buddy, you know you have to applaud his resilience though, oh you have
36:45
dating on his mind after everything he's gone through. I mean, you know,
36:50
he got steven Sagall killed. Cappy might never walk again based on the
36:54
level of damage that he's endured. A bunch of people died, us Air
36:59
Marshall two holes in his belly. But you know what, he's still trying
37:02
to make time. So you know, you get halle Berry into a town
37:07
car and you're driving to the Pentagon, you got to shoot your shot,
37:12
you know. I just want to say, somebody who grew up in d
37:14
C Metro by the way, when he pulls up from Dullest, which hates
37:20
to break it to you gents, is not in Washington, d C.
37:22
And he pulls up and he goes, oh, it's Frederick Field. Frederick
37:25
Field also not terribly close to Washington, d C. Frederick Maryland rather north
37:30
of Washington, d C. Dullest Airport rather south of Washington, d C.
37:37
And that's the thing though, it's just like it's just like O'Hare.
37:40
O'Hare is not in Chicago. It's in Rosemont. But you go to O'Har
37:45
if you want to go to Chicago. Yeah, it's you know, it's
37:49
the same thing. I know, I know, And it's definitely one of
37:52
those things where you have to say, ah, you know they're not from
37:54
the area, but as somebody who grew up in the area, it is
37:59
definitely one of those things where everybody has that happen, anybody who's been around
38:02
Chicago or somebody from California where it's like, yes, that's not everyone.
38:08
Yeah, there's been We've all seen or I've seen like dramas or whatever taking
38:12
place in California and there's driving around in the afternoon and they hit like all
38:15
the landmarks. I'm like, okay, uh no, there's no way you're
38:21
going from Disneyland to Griffith to the beach in one day that that's not going
38:27
to happen. I'm sorry, Like, that wasn't during your lunch break.
38:30
That was a six hour drive that you just had. And no, people
38:32
don't realize how huge California is. Oh wow, it's really big. Yeah,
38:37
So okay, I want to talk about I would love to talk more
38:40
about. We touched on this just from the conversation, but what a great
38:46
cast. I wanted to hit characters next. Yeah, it's I mean the
38:52
characters that live, the characters that die. There's all sorts of characters in
38:57
this one, so I have it color coded on my list because I'm like,
39:00
okay, who who actually? Because sometimes how many security special forces were
39:07
still on the plane, There's like not that many. There's only four.
39:13
There's Baker, Louis, Cappy and Ratt and I am a sucker for a
39:16
good one word commando name. I love it. It's it's the best,
39:22
and we got Grant and we got but yeah, it's really really well cast.
39:28
Like I I found myself paying more attention to Baker this time because he's
39:32
he's the most minor of the ones, Like he does the Morse code at
39:37
the end, and he doesn't get all the lines. He's definitely not like
39:40
the top tier acting wise as far as getting more of the dialogue. But
39:45
I'm like, even he he's carrying his scenes like they all do. A
39:49
really I feel like Baker got more lines than Louis though, than be d
39:52
Wong. I feel like b d Wong was probably the had the smallest role
39:57
out of all the guys. Am I am I alone in this No,
40:00
you might be right. I just know b D. Wong Moore, so
40:01
I every time he was on screen, I noticed he was there. But
40:06
that's a good. Every time I see Whip Hubbly, though, I think
40:08
Hollywood from top gun is that that's all that I can think. Okay,
40:13
fair enough, fair enough, Yeah, yeah, which makes fun that he's
40:16
grousing about the Navy pilot. Well, what's hilarious. What I what I
40:22
think is also really really something where Bair lucks out with this cast is I
40:30
don't get the sense of a director giving a ton of notes, and so
40:34
if one or two of these roles is miscast, he's sort of screwed with
40:40
the movie overall, because I don't get the sense of somebody who's providing a
40:45
lot of subtle direction to his cast about motivation or anything like that. We
40:50
talked about how these shots just look like, get the shot, get it
40:52
done, get it out right, and we're done, and we're gonna go
40:54
edit it and we're gonna go fix it. I think that what comes across
40:59
to me with this viewing, at least, is every one of these people
41:02
showed up and just understood the assignment, and so the director didn't have to
41:07
do a whole ton with them to make it work. You cast J.
41:10
T. Walsh and you say you're a senator who's trying to make his bones
41:14
and you're gonna get shot in the face. You're gonna get ellis yeah,
41:17
sorry, and it's like you know, and J. T. Walsh is
41:21
like, yeah, I got that right, check cleared. Great, this
41:23
is like two days work. Okay, cool, I'm out right. David
41:27
Huchet, be intense and go use this zo voice, not the high proo
41:32
voice. Used your normal speaking voice, and it will terrify everybody. Yeah,
41:37
stare at halle Berry really intently and cut great. Thank you, thank
41:40
you. That was such a weird dynamic that I loved playing with between Hassan
41:49
and Gene, you know, like David Susse Soousche and halle Berry like it
41:55
was. It was this I don't know how to explain Lean, just this
42:00
grudging respect that Shouchet had for Barry. Where it was it was that was
42:07
a very brave I'm not a man. He's like, I'm not a monster,
42:10
but I'm also the terrorist. Like it was, or it made me
42:14
think of uh In like you said in Air Force one, you have.
42:19
Yeah, again, it's just that kind of villain where they're trying to be
42:23
charming. I actually dynamic. Yeah, I actually uh viewed him more like
42:31
uh Jeremy Irons in Diehard with a Vengeance with the guy's a monster and he's
42:37
a murderer, but then he has these weird moments of humanity where it's like
42:42
where you were mentioning Tristan, I was very brave but not necessary. Yeah,
42:45
that was a really good line. Yeah, I think I think that's
42:50
closer than Oldman in Air Force One because I feel like Oldman in Air Force
42:52
one is like just he's fanatical like Oldman and Air Force one, like he's
42:59
chewing Tirforce one. Well, I'm thinking more when she's talking to the secretary
43:02
on the phone and he's like, how's your blouse? Like he's like he's
43:06
trying to be charming on the phone, that that portion. But yeah,
43:10
no, I get what you're saying. I think your example. Yeah no,
43:14
I wasn't trying to discount what you were saying. But yeah, no,
43:15
there's there's so many parallels between these two movies, and not just that
43:20
it's a plane, but also also I think every movie is better with Oliver
43:27
Platt than it would have been without Oliver Platt completely agree, he did great.
43:31
He was like, it's it's like when you've you know, oh,
43:37
that's an example. It's like when you have a gathering of friends and everyone's
43:43
ready to go to the ballgame or something, and then somebody's cousin tags along
43:46
that you don't know, and nobody cares who this guy is, and you're
43:51
just like, oh, hey, yeah, yeah, we got we got
43:52
to have room on the bus. Sure, Like you've already picked teams,
43:57
and it's really awkward when you bring them in at the end, Like there
44:00
was definitely that vibe. They're like, ky hill kill can't do it.
44:04
But he played it so well, right, And to extend your your analogy
44:10
there, right, that friend winds up being like the life of the party.
44:14
He gets like a beer or two in him and suddenly like he's telling
44:16
the best jokes everything, Like, hey, yeah, I'm so glad this
44:19
guy's here with me. This is great. He's also the only guy who
44:22
knows how to change the tire on the bus when it breaks down. Yes,
44:25
yes, exactly, exactly. Yeah, wouldn't even gotten out of the
44:30
bay without me. Platt had a moment in the nineties, and it was
44:34
a really great moment. And I really wish the guy had more fame than
44:40
he got because I've always respected him as an actor. I think that he's
44:45
really got a great screen presence and he definitely plays a type. But when
44:52
he played that type, it was just absolutely exactly what you needed. And
45:00
you know, for all I know he retired because he got sick of the
45:02
business or something like that, but I liked his West Ring role. I
45:07
also seeing him on He's a lot of medical. He's still working. He
45:12
works consistently. He's kind of transferred to TV. Ah, there you go
45:16
like, hey, he's done a lot of episodes. He's done one hundred
45:20
and seventy two episodes in Chicago Med. Yeah, and he was also in
45:22
Chicago Fire as the same character. Good. Then then he's having the success,
45:27
just not on a you know, not on the the the media channel
45:30
that I watch. So, yeah, he was. He plays Daniel Charles
45:35
in the whole Chicago Emergency Universe. Yeah, yes, the Television Cinematic Universe,
45:44
the TCU. But I like, I always know him from Porthos from
45:47
The Three Musketeers and Rupert from BI Centennial man like, those are my two
45:52
favorite Oliver Plat roles. I always think of him from Flat Liners because that
45:57
was the first time I encountered him on screen, and and so it's just
46:00
stuck with me. And that, you know, House of Schumacher maybe on
46:05
the docket, who knows. I'd be fine with it, to be honest,
46:07
I'd be done with that. I including his Batman movies. Oh my
46:12
god, Oh yes, I love those movies. I do. I genuinely
46:16
love Batman Forever. Batman Robin is fun to watch, but I love Batman
46:21
Forever. Batman Forever. I love in the sense of like a fast food
46:25
meal that I eat and afterward I'm disgusted with myself. But I enjoyed it
46:29
while I was eating it, and then like at the end, I'm like,
46:31
oh, all right, I don't like myself. But speaking of character
46:37
actors though, you know, like Oliver Platt and everything like that. Joe
46:42
Morton. We raved about Jor Morrien this podcast. There's nothing more to be
46:45
said. Really, It's just he's Joe Morton. Yeah, yeah, I
46:47
mean he was in the la PD, had that terrible fiasco with the bus
46:53
and joined Special Forces and look what happened to him. Yeah, I mean
46:58
he's basically playing the same guy. It's a you know, military capy,
47:01
but he listened Morton is he does more from that backboard than many other characters
47:07
who can move around. You're absolutely right, but it again, it's another
47:13
I think it's just another example of where Silver handed an incredible cast of actors
47:19
to his first time director and said, if you fail with this, this
47:24
is the only movie you're ever going to direct. Like this was almost just
47:30
absolutely fail safe, idiot proof cast to throw at somebody like you would have
47:37
to be the absolute worst project manager in the world not to get good performances
47:43
out of these people, Like that is the biggest praise I can give you,
47:45
even you know Leguizamo on his still upward trend of visibility inside that I've
47:52
noticed more jokes coming at him this time, like they've always been there,
47:54
but I picked up on him where I'm like, you were kind of crack
47:58
at jokes a lot in this cly that was he did a lot of impov
48:04
and it really pissed off Kurt Russell, Like it really pissed off Kurt Russell.
48:08
Really, I don't know this part of it. Yeah, like Lake
48:12
was Aamo constantly went off script, and Russell was is very much a if
48:16
it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage kind of actor,
48:20
and it threw him off, like there's his shoes and he's like, oh,
48:23
the spell doesn't give us away. I think that, Like God,
48:27
yeah, I think Russell. According to Lore, Russell apparently took offense to
48:31
that, and there's reports of that it got physical, But I don't know
48:37
how much I believe of that. I highly doubt that because Kurt Russell has
48:40
been in the business for so long and he was in fact a pawn in
48:45
the Great Disney Empire. I don't think that he'd ever do something now I
48:49
would put that at risk. But what I do believe, you know,
48:52
yeah, I can see him getting upset, absolutely. But what I do
48:54
believe is the other story that leg was Amo himself talked about where Stephen Sigall
49:01
got physical with him where they they were doing training, you know, kind
49:07
of like boot camp that like some actors go through whenever there's military stuff.
49:10
And Steven sagal super seriously and and like I said, like I'm the law
49:16
here, you guys are going to do what I'm saying I'm the leader of
49:21
this outfit, and Leguzamo thought he was joking, Like he's like, surely
49:23
he's not being serious, and so he started laughing, don't call me Shirley,
49:29
and Sigall threw him up against a brick wall so hard that it knocked
49:34
the wind out of him out of Legiamo. Now, see, that's one
49:37
of those things where you know, you hear stories like that every so often,
49:40
and it sort of goes into Hollywood lore where you go, oh wow,
49:45
you know, people take things really intensely and stuff like that I know
49:49
of no other I mean, let's be honest, a situation you would write
49:53
done. It's like you physically threw your coworker against the wall because of words.
50:00
You're not only you're fired, you're being sued and you're not getting compensation
50:04
for anything being attained. Yeah, that's always going to be the weirdest thing
50:07
when you hear stories like that out of Hollywood. Name commands millions of dollars,
50:13
so I can be a you know, yeah, I think that's the
50:16
thing is that, like, I like, I've worked with billionaires before,
50:23
and I've worked in an industry that trades in billions and there's so many times
50:29
when say like, oh, you know, like we went through HR training
50:31
and everything like that. If somebody said this, what would you do?
50:35
And so many times when you're just like, well, I keep my mouth
50:37
shut because he keeps the lights on. And they're like, oh, well,
50:40
no, that's not true. I was like, yes it is,
50:43
you know, like and that's the thing with Hollywood is that, like you're
50:46
trading hundreds of millions of dollars sometimes and those people who command those those roles,
50:53
you just kind of roll with it, and like that's why we have
50:57
you know, like this is the nineties, you know, like this is
51:00
why like so much more visibility is happening right now with social media and and
51:04
people coming out and saying like, oh, it's not okay to be a
51:07
dick anymore. Like it's not okay to be that that jerk boss. Yeah,
51:10
let's be humans with each other exactly. Let's be humans with each other.
51:15
Yeah. But yeah, so, like you know, leg was Amo
51:19
himself talked about it, and I think during his stand up routine and talked
51:22
about how much of a jerk Slagall was and how like Sigull like said like
51:27
I never want to see you on a red carpet again or something like that,
51:30
and Leg was almost said, like, I don't think you're invited to
51:32
that many red carpetings. You know. The thing I saw, God bless
51:37
him. He showed up earlier the day that Steven Sagall was filming his death
51:40
scene, so you could watch him die and like, woo okay, that
51:44
sounds like Leg was amo, I don't believe the Russell thing, but I
51:46
totally believe the Sagall thing. Yeah, I I could. I could.
51:51
I could believe somebody like Kurt Russell saying, hey, come on, just
51:54
tell me what you're going to say beforehand, please, you know, like
51:58
because I because again you know, oh he went off script. But at
52:01
the same time, Russell's been in the business long enough that there are definitely
52:06
moments on set where you just do a quickly right. There were nice little
52:09
jokes. I didn't feel like he was the clown, like I still respected
52:13
him as the And it also worked because he was rat. He was the
52:16
leader of those that were left, so he kind of gave him a little
52:20
bit of breathing room because you're like, he's kind of carrying the torch.
52:23
That's one thing I liked about his character was even though I'm not a big
52:28
leg was Ama fan, one thing I liked about his character is that like
52:32
he was definitely like he was, you know, he was hot headed and
52:38
he wanted to get things done, get it done. He's likely to get
52:42
it done. It's like we'll just well, we'll risk it, you know,
52:44
we'll risk it, We'll do it. And even though he was angry,
52:46
he would yell when his men spoke up, he listened, yeah,
52:52
and they're like five minutes and yeah, And it's just like that's the thing,
52:55
Like he didn't try to pull rank. He didn't. He never said
52:58
I'm in charge now. It was like he it was clear that he was
53:01
in charge. But at the same time he didn't throw his weight around.
53:06
I really appreciate that from a character standpoint. No, definitely, I agree
53:09
your last last character actor. Just to round it out, Richard ryy Ryle
53:17
real sure, the US Air Marshal you love him on second and you're like,
53:23
that's a US Air Marshal like you. It's so well cast, Like
53:29
you didn't even need to say anything. I didn't even need to see your
53:31
badge and gun. Just a shot of you and that a shot of the
53:36
manifest or the Air Marshals sign of a Yep, that's him, I know,
53:40
although I will say that the most beautiful thing and a testament to his
53:47
versatility is that a few years later he has a terrific role that is completely
53:53
nothing like this one in Office Space, and just squaring those two characters in
54:00
my brain, I'm like, that's what a character actor does, everybody is
54:05
he gets that specific character across as quickly as possible on screen, and he
54:10
that guy was just perfectly cast to your point, Darren, where it's like
54:15
they didn't even need to show me hiding his badge. It's like, yeah,
54:19
that's an Air Marshall. Yeah exactly. And it's like Richard Riley,
54:24
he can'ts work. He constantly deserves it. He absolutely deserves it. Yeah.
54:30
So that but that brings, you know, our new favorite segment.
54:35
And I think that's a great because segway to our new favorite sement. We
54:37
joked about it last week, but you know what we're gonna do it.
54:40
Uh we put it in our spreadsheets, so thus it'd be done. We're
54:45
going to talk about which role Lance Reddick should play in this movie, because
54:50
every movie is better with Lance Reddick. Let's start with you, Tristan,
54:54
who do you think either a character name or actor should have been or would
55:00
have been interesting as Lance Reddick. And just so everybody knows, this is
55:05
something that we're going to do every week, whether you like it or not.
55:08
And it is and we've all determined this beforehand, like nobody everybody has
55:14
this. Before we started recording, we knew who we were going to write
55:16
down and who we were going to say, and no one can change their
55:19
minds, even though, like somebody might give a better answer to me.
55:23
I think Lance Reddick would have made a perfect Baker played by Whip Hubby also
55:29
known as Hollywood from Top Gun, the guy who puts the clip in at
55:32
the beginning and who does the Morse code and everything like that. I think
55:37
he would have been absolutely perfect and given a nice dry sense of humor.
55:42
That's my answer, Baker. No, that's fair. Yeah, it's it's
55:45
sometimes hard to place Lance because it's like he's a not he's not one note,
55:50
but he has a certain tone that he can drive. What do you
55:53
think, John, where are you placing a good friend Lance? I didn't
55:57
put him on the plane. I actually would have replaced len Carew. I
56:02
think that's how you pronounce his last name, the Secretary of Defense, Charles
56:06
White. Because it's an executive decision, yep. The head of the table
56:12
given the orders to everybody speaking for the president, the obvious embodiment of authority.
56:17
I got Reddick in there. Okay, so what what rules are we
56:20
going with? Are we going with whatever age lance Reddick, age of the
56:23
time, lance Reddick, or just lance Reddick, the vinument of lance Reddick,
56:29
because I think that's a good idea. It doesn't matter. Sky that
56:32
invents a time machine and takes lance Reddick and puts him where we want him
56:37
to be at the right time. I'm gonna make a special effects division to
56:43
insert lance Reddick into whatever movie we want, because we could be reviewing a
56:47
movie from the sixties and be like, okay, where's lance Reddick going to
56:51
be on this? Yeah? No, no, it's good. It doesn't
56:52
matter good age of the time. That's too limiting, Tristan, we must
56:57
embrace it was hard because again it's like you want to give him like the
57:04
good lines. Maybe this was the predictable one. I love Jill Morton.
57:09
I think he did an amazing job. But if I had to put him
57:14
in. I went back and forth between like Cappy and k Hill. I
57:17
kind of wanted to see like him going up against Jill Morton, but I
57:22
put him in Capies in capy slot. All right, fair enough, we
57:27
got I don't want to lose Joe, but you know we've got We've I
57:30
think it's fascinating because we've got Reddick in three different spots this time. What's
57:37
gonna be fascinating about this is when we have Reddick in this like it's it's
57:40
going to happen at some point in the future where Reddick winds up in the
57:45
same role for all three of us kind of all agreed or we we liked
57:51
the thought of him as the CEO of Mattel. Yeah, we didn't dive
57:54
deeply into it, but we that's what started this trend. Yep yep.
58:00
So now we give our real ratings, yes, not our Lance ratings because
58:06
that's always a five. All right, I'm just going to go first because
58:09
to no surprise to anybody, I'm giving this a five. Yeah this,
58:15
I mean no, we did point out some some little plot flaws, but
58:19
you know, it's nineteen ninety six. It's a nice March Day. You're
58:23
watching Kurt Russell kick butt on an airplane, and you've got beautiful model work,
58:30
great character choices in acting. It's just a fun, fun movie.
58:38
And I we watched this often and enjoy it every time. So five stars
58:44
from Darren justin whytn't to tell us if your mother coming in and yelling at
58:51
your father was enough to drive down to the star ratings or as it climbed
58:55
back up in the intervening years. This is one of those things where like
59:00
I really battle with want to rate it because I genuinely love this movie.
59:06
I think it's great and I rewatch it a lot, I really do.
59:10
I think it's so much fun. But when you try to look at it
59:15
objectively and you look at like some of the stuff that John talked about,
59:20
like with the like even though like the cinematography it's very TV. The opening
59:25
is so messy. It's so messy. The opening is just it really knocks
59:31
it down for me, like from it in like some some of the writing
59:36
here and there, some of the performances like like the whole like twenty one
59:38
game, you know, like it's stuff like that, Like it's a perfect
59:45
nineties movie and we all know what that means. It's a great nineties film,
59:49
but the fact that I have to qualify it by saying nineties. I
59:53
give it three stars, but a loving three stars, like this is a
59:59
great movie, but it's a three star movie. Yeah, I wanted to
1:00:04
raise my rating from the last time I watched it, but I stick with
1:00:07
a three as well. This is It's not a guilty pleasure because it's not
1:00:12
bad. It's not something where it's like, oh ha ha ha, I
1:00:15
enjoyed Batman Forever, which is garbage, but I love it anyway. This
1:00:17
is a this you know, I did that on purpose, and this is
1:00:22
a you know, it's it's a first movie. And I totally get why
1:00:27
because I mentioned my father in law coming in and sitting down. Grandpa sits
1:00:30
down, and at the end, Grandpa was literally belly laughing at the plane
1:00:35
landing sequence where he's like, oh my gosh, come on, this is
1:00:37
just absolutely off. I'm sitting there. I'm like, yeah, I know,
1:00:40
yah, yeah, let's go. Or I have to say to my
1:00:43
eight year old, yeah, just roll with it. And I'm ashamed now
1:00:46
because I literally thought this was PG thirteen. I never would have shown her
1:00:51
an R rated movie, you kind of should be ashamed. Like you texted
1:00:53
us last night that you showed it to her, and I was like,
1:00:57
oh, okay, yeah, listen, I saw my first R rated movie
1:01:00
when I was six, So you know, it's a fine family tradition.
1:01:02
They rule in the Mills house. Yeah, you know, we're we're all
1:01:07
we're all libertarians. But like it's a it's a solid three. I love
1:01:10
it. I'll watch it again sometime in the next year or two. What
1:01:14
are you gonna do? It's And I still say this is at worst of
1:01:17
PG thirteen, Like this is Batman level violence. Oh, like by today's
1:01:22
standard, Yeah, this is not that bad. And I wouldn't have a
1:01:25
problem with my kids seeing Batman. So this is more blood than a Batman
1:01:30
film. Oh please, first and foremost, Like I said, She's like,
1:01:35
how do they make the fake blood work? I'm like, well,
1:01:37
honey, but on top of that thing, it's realistic. Please, you
1:01:42
know, everybody overlooks it. And Batman guys dropped into a chemical vat that's
1:01:45
dumping raw suit, you know, like all of its chemical waste into a
1:01:49
river, and he's turned into a you know, a menacing clown. That's
1:01:52
not terrifying. I feel like we've wandered here. We have a little bit,
1:01:57
just a little just remember Lance, guys, remember the joy of Lance,
1:02:00
the spirit of Lance Rector. And don't tell my wife I showed up
1:02:05
my kid this movie. Well, Darin, what are we doing if we
1:02:09
can help? Well, next week we're jumping to nineteen ninety eight with Stewart's
1:02:15
next movie, US Marshalls, Tommy Lee Jones here on house Lights. Join
1:02:22
the Revolution, Join the nerd Party.