Man on Fire

Published

May 8, 2024

00:00
52:51

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Tony Scott wins Greg back

Christopher Walken says “a man can be an artist, in anything: Food, whatever… It depends on how good he is at it.” Well… Tony Scott’s art is making movies 47 times better than they should be. He’s about to paint his masterpiece.

It’s a simple equation: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, and Christopher Walken in a Tony Scott film. Without those 4 things, this movie would be a mess. Instead, it’s a magical confluence of style and performance. So much so, that Greg might offically changes his ridiculous stance on Tony Scott.

In this episode, Greg and Joe debate Tony Scott’s batting average vs. Ridley Scott’s, agree to watch all of Tony Scott’s collaborations with Denzel Washington, and most importantly they learn what a “BHB” is. Also: Drinking Games, Important Questions, Joe’s Back of the Box, and more.

Joe’s Back of the Box

Denzel Washington plays John Creasy, an alcoholic former mercenary who takes a job as a personal body guard for Lupita Ramos (played by Dakota Fanning.) But behind the scenes, darker forces are at play, and as the bond between them grows, Lupita is kidnapped and killed. Then John Creasy does what he was built to do: Dish out revenge on everyone involved. But is it too late for vengeance to be served? Or will his demons come back to haunt him? Or will the injuries he sustained during the kidnapping finish him before can finish “The Voice”?

The REAL Back of the Box

One, I hope you do not suffer from motion sickness or seizure disorders because the camera never stops moving, or flashing, or moving and flashing, throughout the entire movie. Two, I hope you are OK with drastic orientalism, as it depicts Mexico as the most dangerous place in the world, where everyone is corrupt in their way and danger lurks on every corner and in every house and in the hearts and minds of everyone involved. But, that said, Denzel Washington kicks ass, Dakota Fanning is amazing, and Christopher Walken steals every scene he is in, and he has a short but completely amazing monologue that you should Google right this second. It is also long and a little bloated…

Note: This transcript has been auto-generated, so… You know… It’s not our fault.

00:00:00:24

Greg: Joe in the movie we watched this week.

00:00:02:25

Greg: Denzel Washington has an art and his art.

00:00:07:02

Greg: Eye and I guess is murder. Should we just say that? Joe, my question for you is what is your art?

00:00:15:06

Joe: Meetings. Meetings that turn into more meetings that turn into more meetings. And that’s the masterpiece that I am going to paint, is a meeting that just lasts forever.

00:00:24:13

Greg: You just say, this meeting is going to scale because that’s what I do. Yeah, exactly. That’s it. Could it be solved with one meeting? But you’re like, no, no, no, I’m the Picasso of turning this into 20 meetings.

00:00:34:17

Joe: Yeah, exactly. I am, I can I can make anything at the multiple meeting. Like, I need to think about this. I need to marinate on it. I gotta, you know.

00:00:42:07

Greg: Listen, let’s put a pin in that and.

00:00:44:19

Joe: And a noodle on this, and then we’ll come back and we’ll, we’ll just, we’ll reconnect and kind of see what happened.

00:00:49:26

Greg: You know what? I appreciate you.

00:00:51:00

Greg: Asking that, but let’s take that offline right now.

00:00:52:26

Joe: Throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.

00:00:55:17

Greg: And your employees are like. We just asked him what he wanted for lunch.

00:00:58:18

Joe: This is Berkeley.

00:01:00:11

Greg: All right, let’s get to the show.

00:01:01:15

Joe: All right, let’s do it.

00:01:03:01

Clip: There were 24 Kidnapings in Mexico City in the last six days. Have you protected a lot of children before Mr. Creasy? Yeah, I don’t know. Bodyguards got to be close to people. You know. I’m no good at that. You know, sometimes people are going to appreciate that 16 years of military experience, extensive counterterrorism work. He’s like a bear.

00:01:27:24

Clip: Yeah. Big sad bear. Good things happen to person. Yeah. Like what? Like me. Me. Gracie. You’re smiling. I’m gonna go get her. I don’t want to get in my way. Anybody who profited from it, anybody open their eyes at me.

00:01:52:01

Clip: I’m gonna kill him. Chris, these are his death. He’s about the Panthers masterpiece.

00:02:07:06

Greg: In 2004, Tony Scott. Oh, my gosh, we’re.

00:02:12:29

Greg: Gonna have to talk. So much about Tony Scott. Made a movie.

00:02:17:12

Greg: Called Man on.

00:02:18:26

Greg: Fire. We’re talking about Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, and as if their incredible performances weren’t enough, we’re going to add on Christopher Walken, Mark Anthony, Radha Mitchell, Mickey Rourke.

00:02:32:15

Greg: Joe Skye, Tucker.

00:02:34:24

Greg: What makes Man on Fire a great bad movie?

00:02:39:28

Joe: Denzel Washington is great in this. Christopher Walken steals every scene he’s in. Dakota Fanning, top notch. And she’s amazing in this as well. The chemistry between them is really good. This movie is great because it’s got so many amazing action cliche lines in it. I usually write down kind of what happens during the movie, and I stopped doing that and started writing some of the lines down, because Christopher Walken has one.

00:03:03:22

Joe: I was like, a bullet always tells the truth. I was like.

00:03:07:07

Greg: The only correct response to that is, what does that mean?

00:03:10:08

Joe: And then, like, he’ll deliver more justice in a week and then your courts and tribunals will in ten years, just stay out of his way.

00:03:16:25

Greg: This movie could have been titled Cell the good Guy.

00:03:19:02

Joe: Yeah, exactly. Denzel Washington’s got some great lines where it says, anybody that had a piece in this who looks at me the wrong way, who profited from this, I’m going to kill them all. And and then he dies. And that’s pretty satisfying. So that’s why this is a great movie. Greg, sweetheart, I throw the question to you. Why is this a great movie in your eyes?

00:03:36:09

Greg: I didn’t know this was a revenge movie, and it doesn’t really play out like a revenge movie until about halfway through. Maybe an hour in that first hour with Dakota Fanning is amazing. It’s really amazing. It’s a really great movie. And then when it pivots into the revenge movie, I didn’t know the movie was going to do that.

00:03:53:05

Greg: And I was kind of like, oh, this movie is changing gears really fast. And I realized, I’m back with Tony Scott. I stopped watching Tony Scott movies until his last movie, unstoppable, which I rewatch every other year because it’s the greatest, because, Train with No Brakes is a train with no brakes. It’s going to be a perfect movie.

00:04:12:11

Greg: One thing that really annoyed me about him back then was the overuse of different film stocks, different kinds of cameras, and the editing is just ad nauseum. It’s just ridiculous. So this was kind of fun for me to go back and realize, you know what? Now that Tony Scott is sadly gone, I can go back and kind of go, all right, let’s look for the good in this.

00:04:31:11

Greg: And I didn’t need to look for the good. I needed to look for the great because I loved this movie. This movie was unbelievable. Now it went from being a pejorative to a positive for me. Now I’m completely on board it as it’s happening. I’m just like, this is so ridiculous and I’m entirely excited about it. So this movie is great because you never get to look at anything for very long because it’s, you know, filmed with 18 different cameras from 18 different angles.

00:04:56:01

Greg: It’s zooming. They’re like burning the film. They’re just doing every possible thing you could do to make it so that you can’t fall asleep during this movie. That said, it’s really effective when it slows down and I feel like this is something that people could learn from Tony Scott, even though I think he goes over the line, go nuts with your movies so that when you slow it down, it it means something.

00:05:15:25

Greg: It doesn’t have to be this obvious, but I was really taken by when they slow down and have an actual emotional moment, I was so starved for it that I was just kind of hook, line and sinker for it. There’s so many edits, so many cameras, so many speeds. That’s why this movie is great. Denzel Washington is amazing.

00:05:32:15

Greg: He didn’t have to shave. That’s something. I like it when he doesn’t shave. And, Dakota Fanning, you’re right. Is is amazing. There’s some trivia out there that says Denzel Washington was so impressed with Dakota Fanning’s acting that he’d watch her and forget that he was in a scene in a movie. That’s how good she was. He would forget that he was in a scene of a movie with her.

00:05:49:23

Joe: That’s pretty spectacular. She is amazing. Yeah. This is one of those things where you go a child actor, you go, how good can they be? Now? She’s spectacular in this and other movies that I’ve seen her in from this time and probably is now, I just haven’t seen her or anything recently. But she is so good in this and they are so good together.

00:06:07:23

Joe: Yeah it’s pretty remarkable. And I agree Tony Scott it sometimes suffers from Oliver Stone syndrome where it is so many cut and so many things are happening at the same time. Yeah it feels a little overwhelming. But he does do a good job when those slow motion scenes are there scenes where he’ll be in the swimming pool underwater?

00:06:28:26

Joe: You know, and it just, like, stops for a second and gives you a breath. But yeah, Tony Scott, that’s a love hate relationship. Yeah. Also have with them or sometimes it feels like it’s let’s just throw every trick and that we know at this and see what happens. They certain directors all their films kind of look the same.

00:06:46:17

Joe: He always has that kind of sepia toned, really rich colors in it.

00:06:51:00

Greg: Yeah, sure.

00:06:52:00

Joe: So it’s you always know you’re watching a Tony Scott film.

00:06:55:05

Greg: You know, back in the day, this was really.

00:06:56:20

Greg: Called MTV editing in that a lot of filmmakers thought that that was kind of ruining film, and he just kind of came from commercials and decided, I’m going to be the impatient MTV edited film director forever, you know, way past its prime. And I guess I held it against him. And now I have a lot of movies to watch.

00:07:18:00

Greg: I’ve got to watch Domino. I never saw that. I’ve been rewatching Spy Game since we watched this. I will never forgive him for The taking of Pelham 123 the remake, because that original is so good. We will for sure get to that original. But, you know, maybe I need to go back and, and see that remake again.

00:07:34:05

Greg: Despite the John Travolta ness.

00:07:35:11

Joe: Of it, we could do a compare and contrast into the original. And that.

00:07:38:14

Greg: One. That’s a great idea. Double feature, double feature. I’m wondering how we should approach this conversation, because we can talk generally about Tony Scott, but I kind of feel like we need to talk specifically about Tony Scott and Denzel Washington because they made a lot of movies together. And something he said about Denzel Washington was he gave him something different in every take that was unexpected.

00:08:00:10

Greg: And if you watch this movie, he is kind of just doing weird stuff a lot. Like he makes little noises. He does this weird thing with his, with his mouth where he kind of like, is moving. Is his chin around? It’s like he moves his chin back a little bit. He does this in a lot of movies.

00:08:13:06

Greg: It’s just kind of one is one of his things. I wonder if it’s something he intentionally does or if he’s just done selling.

00:08:17:18

Joe: He checks his watch, but he doesn’t, like just look down at his wrist. He like throws his arm up. And there’s a flare to it that you didn’t don’t get with other actor. Right? Right.

00:08:26:18

Greg: I think that’s what he’s saying. He just does something different every time. He always surprised him. I think it starts with Crimson Tide. Did you ever see Crimson Tide?

00:08:33:07

Joe: I did see Crimson Tide. I remember liking it. And I remember actually seeing it with someone who was in the Navy. Oh, and they said they got it right on how it works of, like, every time someone enters the room or they come on the bridge, they say, captain, on the bridge or all of these different things. And so they got a lot of the military culture right in that movie.

00:08:53:17

Joe: Okay, I appreciate that. Also ghostwritten by Quentin Tarantino.

00:08:58:18

Greg: Crimson tide.

00:08:59:08

Joe: Was yeah.

00:09:00:10

Greg: Oh, interesting.

00:09:01:08

Joe: So he throws in the stuff about the lipids on our stallion. And of course has to throw in a stupid off the cuff conversation about a comic book character of course, because he’s that’s just his thing. So yeah, but I remember liking Crimson Tide.

00:09:14:11

Greg: We should get to Crimson Tide.

00:09:15:18

Joe: I think so.

00:09:16:11

Greg: So he starts with Crimson Tide. Man on fire. They take a little break. Well, not much of a break because deja vu is 2006.

00:09:23:20

Joe: I have not seen that.

00:09:25:00

Greg: Taking of Pelham One two three inches 2009, and unstoppable is 2010. Oh Joe, we will for sure get to deja vu. You weren’t in that meeting, but it was decided already.

00:09:34:22

Joe: I would have turned that into ten meeting. So yeah.

00:09:37:18

Greg: We should have had ten deja vu movies. Exactly. Okay, well, we need to eventually make our way through all of these because these are all great bad movies in one way or another. So we will eventually celebrate all of these movies by Tony Scott and Denzel Washington and then rank them. This movie is kind of beloved. People love Man on Fire.

00:09:54:07

Greg: Do you think they love it? Because Dakota Fanning, who is like four in this movie, is swimming against people who look like they’re 16 years old in a race?

00:10:01:06

Joe: I think. So I think it’s an interesting movie in that there isn’t actually a lot of action in it. There’s a few action scenes, but it’s mainly when Denzel Washington paints his masterpiece of death. We just see what that means. And it’s, you know, there isn’t massive gun shootouts and hand-to-hand combat. It’s more the aftermath of him catching the bad guys and working himself up the chain to the final bad guy, right?

00:10:30:02

Joe: That we see basically how brutal he is and how he gets his information. When I watched it, it was just like, kill them all. Kill them all. It’s the same thing I feel when I watch John Wick. Sure. Kill them all John.

00:10:42:09

Greg: Yeah, kill them all. John Creasy There is a similarity there where you’re just kind of like, well I mean we have to get all these bad guys now. And so I guess, should we give just a little bit of a synopsis of the movie? So the people who haven’t seen it understand what his motivations are here?

00:10:56:11

Joe: Sure. I will give you my two synopses. Love it. I was a beautiful segue.

00:11:03:06

Joe: Into the back of the box, Denzel Washington plays John Creasy, an alcoholic former mercenary who takes a job as a personal bodyguard for Lupita Ramos, played by the Cobra Fanning. But behind the scenes, darker forces are at play as the bond between them grows. Lupita is kidnaped and killed, then John Creasy does what he was built to do dish out revenge on everyone involved.

00:11:25:23

Joe: But is it too late for vengeance to be served, or will his demons come back to haunt him? Or were the injuries he sustained during the kidnaping finish him before he can finish? The voice?

00:11:35:10

Greg: The voice. So if you’re walking around a blockbuster and you’re looking at some VHS, you know, boxes on the shelves, that’s what you’re going to see. What synopses would you give to someone who doesn’t have time to get down to the VHS store? Good.

00:11:45:28

Joe: I’m glad you asked. Here it is one I hope you do not suffer from motion sickness or seizure disorders because the camera never stops moving or flashing or moving and flashing throughout the entire movie too. I hope you are okay with drastic Orientalism as it depicts Mexico as the most dangerous place in the world, where everyone is corrupt in their way, and danger lurks on every corner and in every house and in the hearts and minds of everyone involved.

00:12:09:15

Joe: But that said, Denzel Washington kicks ass. Dakota Fanning is amazing, and Christopher Walken steals every scene he is in, and he has a short but completely amazing monologue that you should Google, right? This second. It is also a little long and a little bloated.

00:12:24:02

Greg: Not the scene.

00:12:25:12

Joe: No, not the scene.

00:12:28:21

Clip: A man can be an artist. And anything full well, that depends on on how good he is and.

00:12:44:23

Clip: Chris’s artist death.

00:12:49:20

Clip: Is about to paint his masterpiece. Anything else to say?

00:12:54:27

Greg: Oh my gosh, it is so good, isn’t it?

00:12:57:07

Joe: Yeah, it is so awesome cooking.

00:12:59:24

Greg: Whatever. I love how low his voice gets sometimes.

00:13:03:02

Joe: Yeah, it’s just like eating something randomly sitting there. The best scene in the movie?

00:13:09:19

Greg: It depends on how good he is at.

00:13:11:14

Joe: It’s just a little weird.

00:13:14:16

Greg: Puts commas in weird spots.

00:13:16:05

Joe: Oh my gosh.

00:13:16:24

Greg: It’s so great.

00:13:17:24

Joe: I want to do like an hour deep dive of just his monologue. Like, was that written or were you just like ad libbing?

00:13:25:24

Greg: I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. Kevin Pollak, the comedian who has a great, Christopher Walken. Hold on. He actually got this from another guy from SNL.

00:13:35:08

Joe: Is it Jay Moore?

00:13:36:06

Greg: Jay Moore? Yeah, he actually wrote a really good book about SNL, about his. Well, it was like a year there. The panic attacks he had there was really good book. His secret was make one syllable words, two syllables. That’s how you do Christopher Walken. And when you listen to Christopher Walken, it’s so true.

00:13:52:00

Joe: It’s so true.

00:13:54:04

Greg: Let’s see, did you know that this is a remake?

00:13:56:14

Joe: No, I didn’t.

00:13:57:13

Greg: There’s a movie from 1987 called Man on Fire, and it was offered to Tony Scott to direct.

00:14:03:09

Joe: Interesting.

00:14:04:06

Greg: And he decided it was too.

00:14:05:13

Greg: Much like his movie. He had done an 83 called The Hunger and he decided not to do it. But the writer of this movie, Brian.

00:14:12:15

Greg: Helgeland, is what I’ll call him.

00:14:14:19

Greg: In the late 80s, he walked into a video store and it was the video store where Quentin Tarantino worked.

00:14:19:17

Joe: Crazy.

00:14:20:06

Greg: And said, what’s good? And Tarantino recommended 1987 Man on Fire to him. And, this must have come up while Tarantino and Tony Scott had worked together, you know, ten years previous with True Romance. And you’re saying he also kind of did some writing on Crimson Tide, and must have come up again? It’s amazing that, you know, before Quentin Tarantino met Tony Scott, the guy who kind of started his career in Hollywood, he was pitching Man on Fire, as a pretty good movie, in his video store.

00:14:51:02

Joe: That’s awesome.

00:14:51:24

Greg: So I just back to the conversation in the corner. You’re welcome.

00:14:53:23

Joe: Yeah. You know, it’s also, strangely enough, the same plot as transporter two if you’ve seen that movie. So.

00:14:59:28

Greg: And if you haven’t, we’ll get to it. Don’t worry.

00:15:01:20

Joe: We’ll definitely get to that.

00:15:02:24

Greg: We might start with transporter two. To be honest.

00:15:06:17

Joe: Especially after this, because it is the exact same movie as Man on Fire. Yeah, it’s even the same plot where the family is involved in the kidnaping of the kid.

00:15:16:23

Greg: And so Dakota Fanning is kidnaped, the kidnaping goes wrong, and Christopher Walken, who is old friends with Denzel Washington from way back, doing do We know.

00:15:27:04

Greg: What they did?

00:15:27:26

Greg: Do they ever go back and actually kind of say, I know that Denzel Washington says, do you think God will ever forgive us for the stuff we did? Just a very weird thing to say in like, the first 2 or 3 minutes of the movie.

00:15:38:00

Joe: And the answer is no.

00:15:38:25

Greg: And the answer is no. Yeah. What did you think of the kind of the the spirituality? It seems like Denzel Washington knows the Bible pretty well. Dakota Fanning school, there’s nuns and he speaks, he like, quotes the Bible in Spanish. I want to say.

00:15:54:16

Joe: Or Latin or something. Yeah, yeah. What’d you think of. I feel like that was Denzel Washington. I’m saying I did some research and the back story and they like did this whole. He was a Catholic who is now reformed and trying to find forgiveness or something like that. I don’t feel like that was in the movie, but I could be totally wrong about that.

00:16:13:14

Joe: But I felt like that was his interpretation. And like I said, this is amazing. We’re going to go with it.

00:16:18:19

Greg: So you think he he added the do you think God will forgive us? Because it’s one of the first things he says in the movie?

00:16:23:12

Joe: Yeah, I feel like it’s him, but that’s just me. Sure, I I’d have no, I’m basing that on nothing. But, you know, I like Denzel Washington and I feel like that’s something he would do. So even if.

00:16:32:10

Greg: I become friends with Denzel Washington, I’m still going to assume that this is how it was. And I’m not going to ask him about it.

00:16:36:13

Joe: Yeah, exactly.

00:16:37:13

Greg: We’ve got other stuff to talk about.

00:16:39:17

Joe: Yeah.

00:16:40:07

Greg: Because Mickey Rourke in this movie, I.

00:16:41:24

Joe: Feel like that he they left a lot of Mickey Rourke on the cutting room floor in this movie. Because he plays the attorney to the family that is brokering the ransom with the Kidnapers who’ve kidnaped Dakota Fanning and he’s in maybe two scenes.

00:16:59:14

Greg: I don’t know that he was really working in big movies at this point. I think he was he had kind of been ousted a bit. And I’m sure there’s all kinds of reasons he hadn’t come back yet basically is what I’m saying. Iron man two had not happened and the wrestler hadn’t happened yet. That’s how he came back before he was instantly ousted from Hollywood again, you know.

00:17:17:24

Greg: No, we had this right. Never mind. But apparently he and Denzel Washington did not get along during filming. So that also might be why he isn’t really in the movie very much.

00:17:28:09

Joe:

00:17:29:18

Greg: All right, let me give you a little quiz. Were those real burps from Dakota Fanning in this in this.

00:17:35:02

Joe: Movie, I would say yes.

00:17:36:17

Greg: No, she had a stunt belcher because she couldn’t do it. Which honestly disqualifies her from the movie for me. I’m like, I’m not getting a Sun belt, so we’re going to get a real actress.

00:17:45:27

Joe: And yeah, let’s see.

00:17:47:19

Greg: Can we do, an episode of this or that?

00:17:50:20

Joe: Sure.

00:17:51:11

Greg: Okay. I only have one question.

00:17:53:08

Joe: Okay, perfect.

00:17:54:07

Greg: That was perplexed watching this movie because I was really enjoying Christopher Walken, like you said, stealing scenes. Apparently the scenes with Denzel Washington and Christopher Walken mostly improvised. So in this episode of this or that, I’m just going to give you two different options and you have to tell me which one you choose. Okay.

00:18:11:15

Joe: All right.

00:18:12:11

Greg: Christopher Walken or Gary BC oh, who do you put in every movie?

00:18:16:23

Joe: Probably Christopher Walken by a nose, because there’s just something about.

00:18:20:11

Greg: Him because he removes all the punctuation from his scripts. Yeah. And that’s why sentences are so bonkers.

00:18:26:20

Joe: Yeah. Let’s see.

00:18:28:10

Greg: I’m wondering if this movie was great because Denzel Washington stayed in character whenever he was on the set. I think it’s a good thing I don’t work in movies, because that would drive me crazy if I couldn’t talk to somebody if they stayed in character, although I’m sure the movie benefits from it.

00:18:41:09

Joe:

00:18:42:01

Greg: So I don’t know what to think now.

00:18:43:23

Joe: Yeah, I feel the same way. And then you see some amazing performances and you’re like, okay, I get it. I remember, his name, he was in my left foot and Lincoln and Daniel Day-Lewis. Yeah. So it’s famous for that. Yeah. And then you see some of his performances and you’re like, oh, okay. Yeah, sure. I’m in on it because you’re so good.

00:19:04:17

Joe: I hear other actors talk about it and I’m like, you douchebag. Do you think.

00:19:09:06

Greg: That Daniel Day-Lewis is friends? Call him Day-Lewis.

00:19:11:12

Joe: I think one person tried it once and then he, like, disappeared. Yeah, just.

00:19:15:17

Greg: A swarm of key grips. Like you took him down and he’s like.

00:19:20:06

Joe: Never say that about me again.

00:19:22:20

Greg: It’s a complete missed opportunity not to call him Day-Lewis.

00:19:25:03

Joe:

00:19:25:19

Greg: All right. It’s 2004 who was offered the role of crazy before Denzel Washington.

00:19:31:23

Joe: I think lots of people who are going to annoy me because this is Denzel Washington’s role. But let me think let.

00:19:36:29

Greg: Me give you a pretty solid hint. It’s all actors that he’s worked with before.

00:19:41:05

Joe: Okay. So we probably have, Brad Pitt. Nope. Gene Hackman no, I don’t know. I give up.

00:19:50:01

Greg: All right, Tom cruise.

00:19:51:14

Joe: Okay, who.

00:19:52:14

Greg: You just got to think that he’s offered every movie in life. Yeah, every movie that gets made without Tom cruise. You could say Tom cruise passed on this role.

00:20:01:07

Joe: Yeah.

00:20:01:19

Greg: Robert De Niro, Bobby de.

00:20:03:23

Joe: Okay, interesting.

00:20:05:16

Greg: Will Smith.

00:20:06:13

Joe: I could see it.

00:20:07:13

Greg: And Bruce Willis, as far as directors go, Anton Fuqua was offered the chance to direct the movie. He was already busy in production on King Arthur. Michael Bay was offered the chance to direct this movie.

00:20:19:09

Joe: I could totally see my, might, this being a Michael Bay film be more explosions? Write longer sweeping shots? Sure. But yeah, I can totally see Michael Bay directing this film.

00:20:29:29

Greg: I really struggled with Tony Scott because I thought he was a better director than Michael Bay in this chapter. And I felt like he was falling into the traps that Michael Bay did where it was. Let’s just make it as annoying as possible with editing and and whatever. And so I just felt like, why are you doing Michael Bay, your Tony Scott.

00:20:48:06

Joe: Yeah.

00:20:49:02

Greg: And he was probably like, Michael Bay is doing Tony Scott. What are you talking about?

00:20:52:02

Joe: Yeah. Which is.

00:20:52:21

Greg: Probably fair.

00:20:54:18

Joe: I haven’t seen a Michael Bay film in a long time, but I really struggle with Michael Bay films. I feel like they’re completely devoid of a soul. Yeah. And so they’re hard for me to watch because they feel so death. I feel gross because they’re just. There’s nothing to them. And I can see that. Michael Bay, if I think look back at their movies as I’m doing a Tony Scott impersonation.

00:21:19:21

Joe: And I do feel like Tony Scott should have gone more like his brother Ridley Scott. And then more, more arthouse action movies, if you will, versus kind of popcorn action movie.

00:21:29:06

Greg: I can’t believe it’s taking this long for us to talk about this. What is it like? It’s got three productions where Ridley Scott and Tony Scott are making two really different kinds of movies.

00:21:38:06

Joe: Yeah, I really wonder what their relationship was like.

00:21:40:21

Greg: I think in retrospect, Tony Scott has a higher batting average, but he also made much fewer movies. Ridley Scott kind of has this rule where every other movie is good. Tony Scott just made Tony Scott movies through and through. You kind of know what you’re getting.

00:21:55:13

Joe: And I’m going to look up Ridley Scott. I don’t know if he makes better movies. And his brother looking at some of his movies, he gets held up for Alien and Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, some of these classic ones, but he’s had some pretty higher peaks.

00:22:14:09

Greg: Than Tony Scott, but I think maybe a lower batting average.

00:22:17:12

Joe: I agree though. Yeah I would say maybe Tony Scott a better director. Oh my gosh than his brother.

00:22:23:15

Greg: We’re going to get shot.

00:22:24:08

Joe: Yeah. Yeah I mean I think sometimes you get by as a director or an actor even on some iconic films that people really, really love. And it allows you to gloss over some other ones that aren’t great, where if you’re making just kind of the same kind of action movie, it’s never going to be held up in the same regard as right.

00:22:45:09

Joe: Blade Runner and Crimson Tide are not in the same category of movie.

00:22:49:23

Greg: I can’t believe that Ridley Scott is still making movies. 80 something years.

00:22:54:03

Joe: Old. Yeah, good for him.

00:22:55:14

Greg: It must just be the joy of his life.

00:22:57:01

Joe: He’s also the like. I remember the stories about Gladiator where he just wanted to make Gladiator films. So they filmed all the gladiator scenes and then threw a, story around it and it kind of looks like that. Yeah, you watch it, right? And I like that movie. I didn’t I don’t have a problem with Gladiator, but I didn’t think it was this amazing movie even though it won all these awards.

00:23:18:24

Greg: Joaquin Phoenix pretty.

00:23:19:21

Joe: Good. Yeah. I mean, everybody is pretty good and it’s it’s fine. It’s a to me at the popcorn movie, it’s not it’s not anything more than that.

00:23:26:27

Greg: It’s a really good looking movie.

00:23:28:15

Joe: Yeah I mean he does make beautiful films. Yeah. That is, that’s probably his secret weapon. Is he knows how to make a really, really beautiful looking film. Right?

00:23:37:19

Greg: I mean, it’s so consistent that he makes good looking movies that, it’s got to be the director, not just the cinematographers. He chooses. Why is this movie bad? Joe?

00:23:47:16

Joe: I have a few answers for that.

00:23:49:02

Greg: You have some thoughts?

00:23:49:27

Joe: I have some thoughts on this. It’s every possible stereotype about Mexico you could throw. Yeah. At it. Right? It does feels like Mexico’s the most impossibly scary place on the planet. And so I feel like. And that’s become a trope almost. Think of the Sicario and some of these other movies, just as they say, cartels. And you just think Mexico and.

00:24:17:20

Joe: Right, everybody being killed. And I don’t want to downplay how terrible these cartels are because they really are awful. But I also know that not all of Mexico is controlled by them. And, you know, it’s not just a death trap to walk down there. And you need personal security everywhere. Sure. I really hate movies that end like this one did.

00:24:38:16

Joe: Where? Spoiler alert Denzel Washington’s character dies and the end of this. And then the next scene is this kind of semi good person from Interpol capturing the voice and then credits. Right. Let Denzel Washington catch the bad guy. Right. Take us through that arc.

00:24:56:12

Greg: Yep.

00:24:57:00

Joe: It really should end with Denzel Washington being the man on fire and blowing himself up when he meets the voice like he blows up the police commissioner.

00:25:09:15

Greg: Oh, are you talking about the butthole bomb?

00:25:11:00

Joe: Yeah. Okay, so it doesn’t have to be that if Denzel Washington doesn’t want his character to have a butthole barf, but above. Yeah, yeah, but that’s really how it should end.

00:25:21:02

Greg: So this movie ends. He’s gotten Kota Fanning back to her mom, and there’s some sort of trade where he now has to get in the car with the bad guys, and he passes away in the car, and they just show that by him kind of falling asleep and dropping the necklace that she’s giving him. I thought for sure he was going to look at his watch, which was what he was using to to trigger the BHB.

00:25:43:00

Joe:

00:25:43:24

Greg: Earlier, I just thought for sure the watch is going to come into play and we’re going to end on a BHB. And it didn’t. But it turns out the original film ending that was shot, he doesn’t die in the car. He actually has a BHB in the voices house. The two meet for a chat for a while.

00:26:00:16

Greg: Creasy continually looks down at his watch, then the timer reaches zero. Creasy smiles, then the entire house explodes. Tony Scott cut the scene because he felt like it didn’t fit with the tone of the film, but I was shocked that didn’t happen when the credits roll, that means for me, I was like, I just I swore there was going to be a baby.

00:26:16:10

Joe: I feel like that’s a better ending. I don’t I don’t agree with them on this. I feel like everything else was perfect after that point. And then the ending feels really abrupt.

00:26:25:01

Greg: Yeah, I mean, this must have been they spent a bunch of money on it. They did some tests. Audiences didn’t like the ending. They reshot it. But when he drops the necklace, did you just kind of think I’m in? Poor guy’s kind of tuckered out. He just went through a whole adventure. I’d fall asleep in that car, too.

00:26:39:27

Greg: And then they tell us that he’s died with words on the screen. John. Crazier than can I give his birth year and death year?

00:26:47:15

Joe: Yeah, I the ending really bothers me on this. Yeah. And so that’s why it takes it down a notch for me. Yeah. And I feel like it takes its time sometimes getting where it needs to go. And so I feel like it does need a little bit of editing down. It’s probably 20 minutes too long.

00:27:06:07

Greg: That’s exactly what I was going to say. Let’s, let’s shave 20 minutes off of this one.

00:27:09:08

Joe: And like in a sense it’s kind of a love story. They meet right. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl, boy gets girl back at the end kind of arc. Yep. To it. I’m trying to think of where you could shave the 20 minutes off, but I feel like they could.

00:27:21:29

Greg: I think they should shave 30 minutes off and then add ten minutes of Gary Busey to make it the best movie of all time.

00:27:28:24

Joe: He can be the lawyer. Let’s replace him with that.

00:27:32:01

Greg: That role, by the way, was, offered. Are they? They wanted Christopher Walken for that role, but he didn’t want to be. He wanted to be a good guy in a movie. Christopher Walken makes a great, good guy.

00:27:40:29

Joe: I think he’s just an I think he’s a good actor. I think he’s kind of almost become a caricature of himself in some ways. But I feel like he’s undersold as an actor.

00:27:51:08

Greg: I think you’re right. I just saw him in, Catch Me If you Can the other night. He’s really good as the dad in that movie. Really good as the dad in that movie.

00:27:59:27

Joe: I remember seeing him on Inside the Actor’s Studio.

00:28:02:14

Greg: And I missed that show.

00:28:03:21

Joe: And he was a vaudeville actor. I really grew up, like, singing and dancing on the stage. Right? And just can can do anything. Yeah. And do you remember the video that came out for the Fatboy Slim? Yeah, I feel like that propelled him into a new, like hipster. Yeah.

00:28:21:27

Greg: Stratosphere for sure did.

00:28:23:12

Joe: And so then he and then he started playing him a version of himself that people want to see versus the I remember he can play a really good bad guy as well.

00:28:32:29

Greg: Sure. I guess we’ve kind of alluded to it, but it turns out Dakota Fanning Peta wasn’t killed. So all of the people that Denzel Washington gets revenge with, he’s killing people who did not harm Dakota Fanning in any way. It turns.

00:28:48:11

Joe: Out right.

00:28:51:01

Greg: She’s like, no, I’m good. It was fine.

00:28:53:03

Joe: Yeah they were great.

00:28:54:25

Greg: So it kind of negates everything that Denzel Washington’s just done. What are they trying to say? Here are they trying to say the violence is never worth it? Or just like, well, that was a misunderstanding.

00:29:05:10

Joe: Yeah. Oops. Sorry. You know, honestly, I’ve never thought about that until this moment. It doesn’t really change the movie for me, but I probably should.

00:29:15:10

Greg: I am embarrassed that it’s taken me this long to say this, but while this was a movie in 1987, it was also based on a novel, but everybody was waiting for the movie. Let’s be honest, you got to see the movie before you read the book. But in the book, Peeta is killed by the Kidnapers and Creasy survives.

00:29:29:26

Greg: And the writer AJ Quinnell wrote four more novels featuring Creasy and was working on, sixth at the time of his death in 2005.

00:29:38:02

Joe: I could totally see. Jumping ahead to our question, should there be a sequel? There absolutely should be a million people dead.

00:29:44:22

Greg: Yes, totally.

00:29:46:05

Greg: Oh, you know, what we haven’t talked about is, Dakota Fanning’s parents, Rhoda Mitchell and Mark Anthony. What do you think of Dakota.

00:29:53:29

Greg: Fanning’s parents in this movie?

00:29:54:27

Joe: I think they serve their purpose in this movie. They don’t really have a big role in it. Her mother is there to sob and slap people when the ransom goes poorly or the ransom pick up. Right? Angie screams at everyone. And then she gives Denzel Washington permission to kill them all. And then Mark Anthony is there to be the foil and the kind of the bad guy.

00:30:17:16

Joe: This is all his plan. Honestly, in a Tony Scott film you don’t have to do a lot. The camera does a lot for you and like the score. So you know I really feel like you just have to kind of in in this one you just had to look kind of like slightly like it was really humid and hot and like slightly sweaty, you know, flamenco guitar.

00:30:38:16

Joe: And you’re good to go. Right. So. Sure. What did you think of the parent in this?

00:30:44:07

Greg: Well, I thought that she had one accent and.

00:30:47:10

Greg: Then the next line would happen and I would think she had a different.

00:30:49:17

Joe: Accent. Well, that’s also true.

00:30:51:20

Greg: I was constantly concerned about which accent am I supposed to think is the real one?

00:30:55:27

Joe: Yeah. Fair.

00:30:56:20

Greg: Mark Anthony had an interesting time right before this. He was in hackers in 1995 with Angelina Jolie, and then in 96, he was in just an incredible movie that I wish we got more of these every year. The actors Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci directed a movie called Big Night.

00:31:12:00

Greg: Do you remember this movie? Yes. They had like an Italian, a small Italian restaurant.

00:31:16:00

Joe: It’s actually a really good movie.

00:31:17:09

Greg: It’s a great movie. I saw it in the theater.

00:31:19:07

Greg: And made like $14 million. I actually have no memory of what his part was.

00:31:23:08

Joe: I had no idea he was in that movie, but.

00:31:25:01

Greg: So yeah, passable, but but not inspiring. We’ve seen some movies where the supporting cast is just incredible. Kind of like Denzel Washington level or, you know, Christopher Walken is a good example where he is just absolutely making a meal of every scene. They are not doing that. There was a scene where Mark Anthony, it literally looked like his mouth said, I’m acting right now.

00:31:49:03

Greg: Like to.

00:31:49:16

Joe: Himself.

00:31:50:26

Greg: Like it. You could tell he was just trying so hard. I, I asked you about them. I have very little to say about them. Either one.

00:31:56:26

Greg: Yeah, I guess.

00:31:58:02

Joe: They serve their purpose.

00:31:59:08

Greg: Yeah. You know, I actually.

00:32:00:15

Greg: Thought that writer Mitchell, if I’m saying her name right, was really quite good. And she has been, I think, quite busy since then, but not in stuff that I’ve seen. She certainly didn’t stay in like, kind of big movies like this. But, but yeah, I thought she was good, and I just thought one note, she should have been given is, you know.

00:32:21:25

Greg: Maybe don’t do the accent.

00:32:23:07

Joe: There was no reason for her to have a southern accent in this movie. Yeah, nobody cares what her backstory is in this. She could have been from Boston. She could have been from Louisiana. She could have been from California. Nobody. Nobody is like making notes in this movie about the mother in this character and this movie. It’s about Denzel Washington killing them all and saving Dakota Fanning.

00:32:45:02

Joe: That is all we care about.

00:32:46:18

Greg: What if that’s her real accent?

00:32:49:26

Joe: Then I owe her a really big apology. And I’m so sorry.

00:32:53:14

Greg: Absolutely, absolutely. All right, so let’s talk about the reception of this film for just a second. This is just an absolute grand slam on the Rotten Tomatoes scale for us, the critics for this movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, it gets a 38%.

00:33:11:01

Joe: Yeah. Right in our wheelhouse.

00:33:12:20

Greg: Right in our wheelhouse.

00:33:13:14

Greg: I’ll be honest, it it feels.

00:33:15:08

Greg: I don’t know, like what?

00:33:15:28

Greg: Like 32% shy of where it should be.

00:33:18:11

Joe: Probably. Yeah.

00:33:19:11

Greg: Maybe.

00:33:19:23

Joe: Yeah. Feels like a 70, but it.

00:33:21:09

Greg: Feels like a 70 to me. The audience score on this movie, though, is 89%.

00:33:27:16

Joe: Which is just.

00:33:28:04

Greg: The exact balance we seem to find as we’re watching movies for this podcast. A great, review in here was by, John Puccio.

00:33:38:06

Greg: He wrote. I couldn’t help thinking afterwards.

00:33:40:24

Greg: How harebrained the whole adventure was.

00:33:43:15

Greg: Yet Washington is so charming.

00:33:45:27

Greg: So charismatic, and so heroic in this role. He makes the movie.

00:33:51:05

Greg: I think that’s right. You know, you can like, what’s that, a real movie? No, it was kind of amazing, right? And I wouldn’t.

00:33:56:19

Greg: I’m surprised he doesn’t mention Dakota Fanning as well, because she in the first hour of the film, it’s just unbelievable.

00:34:01:14

Joe: I think without Denzel Washington being as amazing as he is, like just the gravity he brings to every scene. This movie is a bloated, trying too hard movie, but instead you have Tony Scott and Denzel Washington, which is just a dream team. And it just works.

00:34:23:29

Greg: It’s almost like they could get.

00:34:25:25

Greg: Together and make a movie where he reads the phone book. I mean, it’s literally like someone hands Denzel Washington a bag and says, can you act your way out of this heat? And he’s like, challenge accepted. I’m going to make Man on Fire right now.

00:34:37:19

Joe: Yeah exactly.

00:34:38:18

Greg: Great review I think. Let me I want to I can’t wait to hear your take on this review.

00:34:43:01

Greg: It’s Louis Jerome Cloutier and he wrote, ball.

00:34:47:15

Greg: Divertissement de mass.

00:34:49:22

Greg: Nonexempt.

00:34:50:23

Greg: De intelligence.

00:34:52:04

Joe: Yeah. What the hell does that guy know? Yeah, you know.

00:34:55:08

Greg: I don’t speak French, so I felt like it was a negative one.

00:34:58:08

Greg: Yeah. So I put it in Google Translate and it is good.

00:35:01:25

Greg: Mass entertainment, not.

00:35:03:28

Greg: Devoid of intelligence.

00:35:06:20

Joe: I still feel like that’s a slight, you know.

00:35:09:01

Greg: No, no, no, no, I think that is a perfect review of this.

00:35:12:05

Greg: Really good. That’s entertainment. Not devoid of intelligence.

00:35:16:15

Greg: All right, let’s get to drinking games.

00:35:17:25

Joe: Let’s do it. All right, so we have a few of our stop drinking games. There is no silent helicopter unfortunately. Missed opportunity I feel like right.

00:35:27:03

Greg: And rare for a Tony Scott movie.

00:35:29:15

Joe: Seriously. Like I feel like half of his movies are shot solely on helicopters. So.

00:35:36:22

Greg: Imagine if drones had been invented in 2003 when they filmed this movie.

00:35:40:26

Joe: I got me red thinking that like seven shots at the same time. Yeah, yeah. Amazing. Yeah. Pushing and enhanced. I did not see one, although I feel like I may have missed it.

00:35:52:18

Greg: I’m going to say no, but the camera is constantly pushing.

00:35:55:21

Greg: In, so I’m going to give.

00:35:56:29

Greg: A yes with a question.

00:35:57:27

Joe: Mark. Sure. Like if you want a drink, drink on that one. Yeah. Street, inexplicably wet.

00:36:04:15

Greg: Absolutely.

00:36:05:16

Joe: Yeah.

00:36:06:03

Greg: This movie didn’t invent it, but, this movie might have perfected it.

00:36:10:06

Joe: It’s beautiful.

00:36:11:02

Greg: It’s in Mexico. Where does it rain?

00:36:14:02

Joe: Right before the shot? It does. Absolutely. Okay. When two people share a slow motion look in the middle of chaos, the kidnaping scene.

00:36:23:23

Greg: Yes.

00:36:24:14

Joe: Chrissy and, Dakota Fanning or the lightning. Oh. It’s perfect. It’s beautiful. Yeah. So. Absolutely. Explosion with silent suffering and ringing in the ears. I didn’t notice that, but it could have been. I don’t think so. Opening credits scene where the title locks in with a sound. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That’s a flashback to dialog two minutes ago.

00:36:46:17

Greg: Absolutely.

00:36:47:09

Joe: Oh, yes. This one, as this movie does, is so good.

00:36:50:27

Greg: Especially when he’s drinking.

00:36:52:16

Joe: Yeah. Those are our stock ones. What are some drinking games that you had?

00:36:57:17

Greg: Let’s see.

00:36:58:27

Greg: Anytime Denzel.

00:36:59:28

Greg: Washington does a weird thing with his chin.

00:37:02:13

Joe: Interesting.

00:37:03:16

Greg: He kind of does that a lot. His chin acting.

00:37:05:28

Greg: He moves around his chin quite a bit.

00:37:08:13

Joe: I have, every time he makes a deliberate movement and checks his watch.

00:37:13:07

Greg: Yep, yep.

00:37:14:22

Greg: Any time Denzel Washington speaks Spanish.

00:37:17:18

Joe: Oh, that’s a good one. I have sweeping camera work where the camera just kind of zooms in.

00:37:23:17

Greg: Okay, so I’m confused. Is it going around the person or is it zooming into them?

00:37:26:20

Joe: It could be both. Oh, okay. Any time the camera is moving towards or around a character. Oh my gosh, that.

00:37:35:05

Greg: Person is going to be in the bathroom for half of the movie. Yeah. Good luck to their bladder, basically. Okay.

00:37:40:28

Greg: Anytime someone says Creasy Bear.

00:37:43:06

Joe: Oh, that’s a good one. I have, every time Christopher Walken talks about art, finish your drink. Okay. It’s got one spectacular monologue in this. So just like everybody in the room got a drink when he has that moment.

00:37:58:15

Greg: Admits everyone in the room has to finish their drink. Yeah. Okay. Any.

00:38:02:27

Greg: Time Denzel Washington tries to.

00:38:05:10

Greg: Catch a flipping bullet in the air.

00:38:07:11

Joe: Oh, nice.

00:38:08:26

Greg: Which he is incredibly bad at in this way.

00:38:12:12

Joe: I know I had every time he loads or unloads a gun, so.

00:38:15:18

Greg: Oh, interesting. That’s a good one. That’s a really good one. How about any time you kill someone?

00:38:19:25

Joe: Oh, I have every time there’s flamenco guitar on the score. It comes in. It’s so beautiful. Even in the middle of, Christopher Watkins, soliloquy around art halfway through, like, there’s a pause, and then the flamenco guitar kicks it. Oh, it’s so good. It’s so beautiful.

00:38:39:16

Greg: We are just, like diving off a cliff with this drinking game tonight. I’m just going to recommend that everybody drink coconut water instead of anything else.

00:38:47:09

Joe: Yeah.

00:38:47:24

Greg: You know, a lot of people don’t drink. You need to drink some coconut water on this one. You’re going to be so hydrated. You’re going to thank us. Let’s see.

00:38:56:24

Greg: Any time the movie changes speed slower.

00:38:59:22

Greg: Or faster.

00:39:00:26

Joe: Oh, a Tony Scott specialty. Yes. I have every time he reads the Bible.

00:39:07:09

Greg: Oh, I have that one as well.

00:39:08:26

Joe: Sweet.

00:39:10:03

Greg: And so the one that I have before that, I’ll just add right here.

00:39:12:21

Greg: Anytime he.

00:39:13:08

Greg: Drinks.

00:39:14:05

Joe: Oh, that’s a good one. Every time he makes notes in his notebook.

00:39:20:18

Greg: How about any time he zones out and almost crashes into someone.

00:39:24:06

Joe: Oh.

00:39:24:27

Greg: That happens so many times. Once he’s like the worst driver in history.

00:39:28:20

Joe: Yeah. Every time they show a stuffed bear, you have to drink. Okay, okay.

00:39:35:04

Greg: How about anytime, someone.

00:39:37:05

Greg: Listens to Linda Ronstadt, and that song almost drives the character to attempt suicide.

00:39:43:07

Joe: That blue bayou is that. Yeah. They play I’m a Loop. And that’s movie. Absolutely. I have every time Christopher Walken steals a scene, which is every scene he’s in.

00:39:57:04

Greg: Any time you hear her mom talking and think, that can’t be.

00:40:00:00

Greg: A real accent.

00:40:02:08

Joe: All right, I’m at a drinking game. Do you have more?

00:40:04:20

Greg: I have two more. All right. The first one is.

00:40:07:00

Greg: Any time you honestly.

00:40:08:24

Greg: Believe that Mark Anthony is your.

00:40:10:02

Joe: Father.

00:40:12:18

Greg: And the second one is any time you don’t.

00:40:14:26

Greg: Honestly believe that Mark Anthony is her father.

00:40:18:28

Greg: All right, so we get two important questions, okay? All right. So important questions. Joe,

00:40:23:26

Greg: Did this movie hold.

00:40:25:06

Greg: Up, then?

00:40:26:04

Joe: I think it hold it held up then.

00:40:27:22

Greg: That’s exactly the way you phrase. That is what I’m thinking, dude. It doesn’t hold up now.

00:40:33:13

Joe: It’s a little harder now. I love this movie. So I give it like 51% hold up now. But it’s a little a little rough in spot.

00:40:43:29

Greg: Do they sell the good guy.

00:40:45:17

Joe: Oh my god. Do they sell the good guy. That’s there are so many moments Christopher Walken sells the good guy in this. Yeah multiple times.

00:40:54:08

Greg: This movie also does one of my very favorite good guy sales tactics, where they literally show a resumé, and then the character who’s looking at the resume starts reading it out loud like bullet points. You know, his military history and whatever.

00:41:10:00

Joe: Lebanon, Thailand.

00:41:11:25

Greg: It’s 16 years as a blah, blah, blah.

00:41:14:00

Joe: Yeah.

00:41:14:20

Greg: Okay. This is I’m so glad we’re talking about this. Does it deserve a sequel?

00:41:19:04

Joe: Yes, absolutely. In my mind. And I’m jumping ahead a little bit and like how you fix it. This is the first and the equalizer reverse in my mind is how you fix it.

00:41:29:20

Greg: It Hold on. Okay. Is this the prequel to the three equalizer movies?

00:41:34:21

Joe: My stance on prequels is pretty clear.

00:41:38:08

Greg: I think you just backed into this one.

00:41:39:17

Joe: Yeah, I backed into it, but it’s like the first movie. This is where they’re starting. And now we go into The Equalizer averse. Yeah I’m in okay. Absolutely. It could be the prequel.

00:41:49:06

Greg: I mean The Equalizer movies are the only sequels he’s ever done I think. Yeah. And they were directed by Antoine Fuqua who turned down this movie.

00:41:56:23

Joe: There you go.

00:41:57:09

Greg: So, does it deserve a prequel? Does this prequel deserve a prequel?

00:42:01:07

Joe: I could totally see his son or Michael B Jordan coming in and doing his 16 years as an assassin in the Army. And have that be a total awesome kick ass bunch, a movie. So yeah, grudgingly, I will allow prequels to happen. Okay, but only barely. How do you feel about that?

00:42:22:12

Greg: Yeah, I completely agree with you, John David Washington, his son should play young Denzel. I think young.

00:42:28:18

Greg: Christopher Walken should.

00:42:30:01

Greg: Should be played by a not de-aged Christopher Walken.

00:42:34:20

Joe: I mean.

00:42:35:23

Greg: Just get him in there.

00:42:36:25

Joe: Yeah.

00:42:38:11

Greg: All right, Joe, why is there romance in this movie?

00:42:41:00

Joe: Beautiful. About this movie? There isn’t romance in this movie. It’s so perfect. There’s no need.

00:42:46:00

Greg: No, this movie gets it right.

00:42:48:02

Greg: Are we bad people for loving this movie?

00:42:50:26

Joe: Most likely. Probably. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00:42:55:15

Greg: If Man on Fire was an album, what would it be?

00:42:58:09

Joe: I don’t have a good reason other than they play a lot from this album, but I have it as the Fragile by Nine Inch Nails. Yeah.

00:43:07:11

Greg: I’m surprised it took three episodes for us to get to Nine Inch Nails. Is your answer here?

00:43:12:01

Joe: Yeah. This is, this seemed right and they use a few different songs off of that album. So yes, that’s the album. What about you, what album is this for? You.

00:43:21:15

Greg: All right, so someone.

00:43:22:21

Greg: Has been wronged and they go on a revenge spree. That to me, reminds me of any of the first three Britney Spears albums. I think Britney Spears should take a look back at what this world has done to her. And just John Creasy. Anyone and everyone that has wronged her and to be honest, I feel like, you know, most of this planet has wronged Britney Spears in one way or another.

00:43:48:11

Greg: So I look forward to that. I’m including the first three albums, so that, toxic can go on our Spotify.

00:43:55:05

Joe: Playlist because I don’t.

00:43:57:24

Greg: Want anything on our first two albums on there.

00:43:59:10

Joe: No, that is her best song. Yeah. Fire by a mile.

00:44:03:10

Greg: Yeah. I wanted to say, I.

00:44:04:15

Greg: Mean, I it really is like her first album because that’s the most egregious, like, oh my gosh, she was so young. What was what was the music industry doing there? And then what were the people who were listening in like just ridiculous. But you know, toxic is so good. I’m just going to say our first three hours.

00:44:18:18

Joe: Perfect.

00:44:20:04

Greg: Joe, how could this movie be fixed?

00:44:21:28

Greg: AKA who should be in the remake? So let’s start with fix fixed.

00:44:27:27

Joe: It is long. Yeah, it probably could be edited down by at least 20 minutes. The first hour of it is really a good movie. It has a terrible ending. They could have easily had him live. Yeah, and figured out how to fight his way out and. Yeah, sure. You know, have the reunion with Dakota Fanning and then into The equalizer averse.

00:44:50:23

Joe: So, what about you? How could this movie be fixed in your mind?

00:44:54:23

Greg: I agree with you about how the first.

00:44:57:08

Greg: Half of this movie.

00:44:58:11

Greg: Could be its own thing. I think that movie should end when she wins the swim.

00:45:01:26

Greg: Meet, and it’s really like a sports drama about him teaching her how to be a better swimmer, and learning a little bit about something about himself in the process.

00:45:09:25

Joe: Is this the prequel to, what is the the football movie that he does?

00:45:14:18

Greg: The last Boy.

00:45:15:06

Joe: Scout? Yes, that’s what it’s got. No. Yeah.

00:45:19:21

Greg: With shades of, swim fan, which was not a Tony Scott movie, but the fan was.

00:45:24:21

Greg: And I think they were both the same movie.

00:45:26:26

Joe: So if we could have a mash up of the last Boy Scout swim fan and the fan. Yes.

00:45:32:12

Greg: That’s what I’m saying. Okay, but if you were to end this movie right when she wins the swim meet, you’ve got yourself a 43 minute masterpiece.

00:45:39:02

Joe:

00:45:39:25

Greg: So that’s the fix that I have you in the movie when the swim meet ends.

00:45:44:07

Joe:

00:45:44:29

Greg: Okay. So what about a remake though? If they were going to remake this movie, how would you do that?

00:45:49:00

Joe: I would remake it as The Transporter two because it’s eerily similar plot. And you have better car chases and transporter two.

00:45:59:01

Greg: Potential missed opportunity of A versus A for us.

00:46:01:07

Joe: Yeah, exactly. What about you? How are you? How are you going to fix it or remake it?

00:46:06:27

Greg: I think we should remake this movie. I think the world would be okay with us just taking this. Much like how this was basically a remake of The Transporter two. We remake this movie. We could still call it Man on Fire, but it’s an action comedy drama. Now with, Damon Wayans Jr.

00:46:23:16

Greg: And for the Christopher Walken part, I think it’s, I think we should put Adam.

00:46:27:09

Greg: Sandler in one of his good performances in this movie.

00:46:31:11

Joe: I mean.

00:46:32:01

Greg: And so let’s see who would play Peter.

00:46:35:19

Greg: You know how a lot of times.

00:46:36:25

Greg: When they put kids in movies, they’ll actually cast twins? I think we should just cast Marlon and Shawn Wayans dressed as little white girls. Okay, so it’s also an unofficial sequel to White Chicks, that movie that they made, right?

00:46:52:08

Joe: Or a prequel?

00:46:53:28

Greg: Yes, absolutely. It’s a prequel to unofficial prequel to White Chicks.

00:46:58:13

Joe:

00:46:59:16

Greg: So the mom should be.

00:47:01:06

Greg: Played by Kristen Bell.

00:47:03:01

Joe: Okay.

00:47:04:01

Greg: And so that means that the Marc Anthony role immediately is offered and given to Dax Shepard. That’s all the comedy in the drama. The action is a little bit different in this one. Chrissy in this movie never actually kills people. He just passively, aggressively hurts people’s feelings. Oh, and I think we should change the name of it.

00:47:24:07

Greg: It’s not man on fire, it’s man in Fuego. Because that could also be translated as man in heat, which everyone knows. This is a comedy because it’s called Man in Heat.

00:47:31:26

Joe: All right. I mean, I was thinking, you’re going to go with, Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger to play the kid. I’m like, because they’re twins. Yeah.

00:47:43:12

Greg: Because I’m a grown man.

00:47:44:18

Greg: And can and make decisions and do what I want. I did watch The Great Muppet Caper a couple nights ago.

00:47:49:13

Joe: Okay? And that.

00:47:51:12

Greg: Movie has this hilarious plot point where no one can tell.

00:47:54:29

Joe:

00:47:56:00

Greg: Fozzie Bear and Kermit from each other. They all think they look exactly alike.

00:48:01:01

Joe: Awesome.

00:48:01:27

Greg: And I just wish movies would just do big swings like that, like Fozzie Bear. You can tell it’s him because he wears a hat, but when he takes his hat off, he looks exactly like Kermit.

00:48:11:25

Joe: Terribly right.

00:48:13:07

Greg: Anyways, I miss the Muppets. They’re so great. Let’s do the lightning round.

00:48:17:12

Joe: Well, we have a few here. We have color filters for third world countries. You know, you’re in Mexico because, you know, the, the color story is telling you you’re in Mexico. The color stories are, the best at something. I would say he’s probably would be considered the best at this. You know, I, you know, I can make a case with his, you know, 16 year resume and the soliloquy around killing is his art.

00:48:43:20

Joe: Yeah. You have revenge as the driver of the protagonist. So Denzel Washington and then redemption. So redemption, like he has been redeemed by his love for this little girl. And so, lean into that. We have kind of that who is allowed to hurt the main character. So who is allowed to hurt Denzel Washington? So the only people that do are, you know, like the brother of The Voice is the only one that.

00:49:07:06

Greg: Like, write once he gets to the top.

00:49:09:00

Joe: Yeah. All the henchmen are just kind of taken out pretty easily. You have lots of this happening. You have explosions on impact with car crashes a lot. What I love so much. And then you have another classic action movie trope, which is there are no women except for a love interest or the mother, and you have the mother and this and that, and that’s really it.

00:49:32:20

Joe: You know, they have the the reporter, but she’s that doesn’t play a big part of it.

00:49:36:04

Greg: So I guess, I guess I’m glad she’s in this then.

00:49:39:19

Joe: I kind.

00:49:39:29

Greg: Of wondered if that was something that should be trimmed from the film as it got longer and longer, but no.

00:49:45:01

Joe: I think that’s it.

00:49:46:04

Greg: That’s solid. All right, so now it is the moment of truth. Joe, we need to rate this movie. Great bad movie. Good bad movie.

00:49:55:06

Greg: Okay. Bad movie, bad.

00:49:57:00

Greg: Bad movie or awful bad movie. What? What do you rate man on Fire from 2004?

00:50:02:08

Joe: I think it’s a good, bad movie. I really want to give it a great, bad movie. There are moments of greatness in it. If they had a better ending on it, I would be a great bad movie for me. But it’s really close because I do love this movie.

00:50:17:07

Greg: I I’m right on the line, so I’m it sounds like we’re in the exact same spot. I’m right on the line between good bad movie and great bad movie. There are aspects of this film that are just too good, you know? But it is pretty funny. Something.

00:50:30:12

Joe: Yeah.

00:50:33:00

Greg: It’s it’s a good, bad movie that has FBS.

00:50:35:24

Greg: So that almost makes it a great, bad movie to just put it that way.

00:50:38:25

Joe: Yes, absolutely. I won’t fight and I won’t be upset with anybody that says this is a great bad movie.

00:50:44:10

Greg: Absolutely.

00:50:45:11

Joe: I can’t quite get there. But, you know, depending on the day, if I watch it, I might I might change my mind. So it’s it’s fun. It’s a fun movie. It’s, you know, thoroughly enjoy every every time I watch it.

00:50:56:24

Greg: I’m so glad we watched it.

00:50:58:02

Joe: Yeah.

00:50:58:29

Greg: All right, Joe.

00:51:00:02

Joe: We did it. Nailed it. We had the conversation that needed to be had about man on fire.

00:51:05:13

Greg: No one will ever need to.

00:51:06:22

Greg: Speak about this movie again. As far as I can tell.

00:51:09:12

Joe: Now, I feel like we have said everything that needs to be said. So you’re welcome everyone. Yeah. Yeah. So.

00:51:15:00

Greg: Oh, hey, listen, this has been great, but, I actually need to go. I’m writing a sports biopic about Conor Fanning called fastest in the water. But slowest off the blocks.

00:51:25:07

Joe: Interesting. Listen, this has been great, but, I really need to hear the truth right now, so I’m going to go have a talk with a bullet.

00:51:32:24

Greg: That makes sense.

00:51:34:07

Greg: Okay. And, you know, very similar to that. I need to go find out if God will forgive us for what we’ve done on this podcast.

00:51:42:02

Joe: It’s good. I’m off to a rave right now. I want to make sure that this person from new Jersey that I know is there and is doing okay, so.

00:51:50:20

Greg: That makes sense. Yeah. You know.

00:51:52:08

Greg: That I typically love, like, hanging out with you, but you have been consistently looking at your watch for the last couple minutes, and that has made me.

00:51:59:02

Joe: Increasingly.

00:52:00:04

Greg: Uncomfortable. So I should probably get out. Yeah.

00:52:02:16

Joe: That’s good. I got to go home and, sepia tone all my photos from my vacation to Mexico that.

00:52:07:26

Greg: Oh, that totally works for me because I need to go return this Linda.

00:52:11:15

Greg: Ronstadt CD that I bought because it has not.

00:52:13:25

Greg: Had a positive effect on my family.

00:52:15:12

Joe: Yeah, that’s all right. I need to go check my voicemail. I keep getting messages from someone called The Voice. I hope I’m sure is okay.

00:52:24:19

Greg: Okay, well, that works for me. So,

00:52:26:21

Greg: I’ll see you soon.

00:52:28:02

Joe: Yeah. Sounds good.