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A perfect snapshot of 2003
2003’s biggest surprise (besides The OC and maybe Arnold becoming a governor.) A movie, star, and director that are collectively SO much better than you’d expect. Remember 2003? This movie encapsulates it. The Rock is a professional bounty hunter who hates his job, guns, and a wannabe Indiana Jones named Travis (Seann William Scott), who’s too busy searching for a mythical golden artifact in the Amazon to answer his dad’s phone calls. Rosario Dawson is reliably great in a well-written part that’s basically Karen Allen from Raiders of the Lost Ark minus the drinking competition (👎) and romance (👍).
What follows is a buddy comedy where “buddy” mostly means “I’ll beat you up if you don’t stop talking.” The Rock tries to keep a straight face while dealing with angry rebels, homicidal monkeys, and Christopher Walken’s unhinged speech about tooth fairy folklore. Yep, that happens.
Add in some slow-motion fight scenes, a lot of jungle explosions, and more eyebrow-raises than we’d like to talk about, and you’ve got The Rundown—a movie that fosters this week’s conversation that needed to happen.
Joe’s Back of the Box
When bounty hunter Beck (The Rock) is tasked with bringing Travis Walker (Seann William Scott) home, he inadvertently stubbles into gold mining operation stripping the Amazon of its resources. Now forced to take sides for once in his life, can Beck defeat his inner demons in time to save the town? This movie packs a punch and then some with an explosive finale guaranteed to satisfy.
The REAL Back of the Box
To make a wrestling metaphor, This is the proverbial tagging in of the next big action star. Arnold Schwarzenegger even cameos in the opening scene. It has all the toxic masculinity you can handle filled with one dimensional characters yelling at each other. Yet, I still have a soft spot for this movie if for nothing else than Christopher Walken making every scene he is in perfect. There are some fun action scenes and genuinely funny moments wrapped around a movie you will forget in 5 minutes.
Note: This transcript has been auto-generated, so… You know… It’s not our fault.
Greg: Joe in the movie we watched this week, Dwayne The Rock Johnson has to travel to Brazil to pick up Shawn Williams Scott and bring him to his dad’s house, I guess in America. Yeah. Do you remember a time where I’ve picked you up to take you someplace back in the day?
Joe: Oh, back in the day. This is one of my favorite memories of fun things we did. So we both grew up in the Bay area, so that that needs to be the frame for this. And if you were anybody who was anybody in the Bay area, you loved Huey Lewis and the news.
Greg: Absolutely.
Joe: It was just like how long I think they passed, especially if you’re in in Northern California, in which we both were from. And so you picked me up from work one afternoon. You did not tell me any information.
Greg: I kept it a surprise.
Joe: It was a total surprise. You just picked me up and you said we got to go. And so we started driving. And we live in Seattle. Puyallup Fair is where the state fair. And it’s a bit of a drive from.
Greg: From Bellingham? Yeah.
Joe: From Bellingham. So it’s like a 2.5 hour, three hour drive. Hey.
Joe: And so you picked me up and didn’t tell me where we were going. And so we just were off on an adventure to wherever, which was fine with me. Sure. I didn’t realize what was happening, I think, until we got to the Puyallup Fair. And we could hear Huey Lewis and the news playing.
Greg: Because we were late. So classic us.
Joe: Yeah. Classic us. Yeah, they were probably halfway through the set list. Yeah. And I remember we got there and then, you know, they like the end a lot of songs by jumping, you know as it like on the last beat you’re like, yeah. But you pointing to me going. Did you see that? Every one of the band was off the ground on that.
Greg: That’s how you know they’re a good band. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah. So that’s what I remember. That was a really fun trip and still an encapsulation of our friendship. That really hasn’t changed, but we drove around. Yeah. Listen, the music talks about music, talks about movies, and that’s about it.
Greg: I remember what you talked about on the way there. We were listening to U2 and A Tribe Called Quest. Those were the two albums we listened to. We had a lot to talk about with those two.
Joe: Absolutely. Yeah, it was a new the New Tribe Called Quest was after me three times in life. No no no no no.
Greg: It was beats, rhymes and life.
Joe: Oh that’s right, that’s right. Yeah yeah yeah a record.
Greg: I think I was very lukewarm on when it came out and yeah, it’s now just, you know, one of my favorite records of all time.
Joe: Yeah. It’s a great album. Yeah. Sneaky album.
Greg: We finish the show and then we drive home. We must have stopped in Seattle.
Joe: I don’t think we stopped. No, we just went straight through. We may have stopped for gas or something like that, but maybe we stopped at Denny’s. That was a big thing. We would drive a lot. Well.
Greg: We’re classy. Yeah, obviously.
Joe: Sherry’s if we’re really classy, I.
Greg: Mean. Yeah. But do you remember when we were driving home? We were falling asleep?
Joe: Yeah, we’re falling asleep. And so we are in, about a half hour, 45 minutes from home. Yeah. By that point. Yeah. And we just pulled off at an exit and then drove down this, like, Farm Road, which was pretty busy during the day and just, like, pulled off onto the shoulder and, like, fell asleep.
Joe: So unsafe, like in my childhood that I would be so mad.
Greg: But on the other hand, super safe because we were recognized. We were too tired to drive.
Joe: Exactly. Yeah. We’re doing everyone a favor. I remember being woken up at, like, 2 or 3 in the morning by a train going by. Yeah. And just being freezing cold.
Greg: So cold. Yeah, I remember that feeling. And, you know, we’re about a half hour from blasting the heater, and it is doing nothing. Now for me, I think. Yeah. Oh. That’s amazing. We should go to the fair this year.
Joe: Yeah, absolutely. Only good people play the piano.
Greg: 100% true. All right, let’s get to the show.
Joe: And let’s do it.
Clip: One job. I wipe your slate clean. You walk out of this house a free man. How much? 250 large. No problem.
Clip: He’s come to the other side of the world to finish one last job. Him? I do not want to fight you. We are not fighting. Okay. Hip hop. The rundown. You got the moves. I’ll give you that.
Clip: My. Oh!
Clip: The year is 2003.
Greg: Pete Berg gets together with Dwayne The Rock Johnson and Shawn Williams. Scott and Rosario Dawson. And we’re also talking about our guy, Christopher Walken. They decide to make the run down. Now, this is the most 2003 movie possible to be made that year. Joe Skye Tucker. Why is the run down a great bad movie?
Joe: Well, you have some really good things going for it. You have a real director and Peter Berg.
Greg: Yeah. Only his second movie, though. Yeah.
Joe: As you say in the opening, you could not encapsulate a year better or even, like a time period of movies better than The Rundown in terms of what it is. It’s got some really fun moments in it. Christopher Walken and this is him and the heyday of him coming in as a supporting character.
Greg: Yep.
Joe: Stealing every scene? Yeah. Just kind of playing Christopher Walken to a tee and like, if someone was impersonating him in this movie, that’s kind of like a caricature of himself. He is hilarious in this. You have Sean William Scott coming off of the American Pie movie. So he’s kind of trying to do something a little different. Yeah. And this is The.
Greg: Rock’s first big movie. Yeah.
Joe: So this makes him a star in a lot of ways. Past that. This is a tough movie. It’s a bad movie, too. There are a lot of tokenizing of indigenous culture in this. You have the most sepia toned Brazil.
Greg: You could possibly.
Joe: Have. So very much that there’s a lot of just kind of over the top ridiculous fight scene, which I’m here for. I’m not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against that. But it just some of it just felt a little too over-the-top for me at times.
Greg: And so what’s over the top about the the fight scenes?
Joe: It’s like the final fight scene they have where he kills. Like they have an army of people trying to stop two people.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Most of the people that he’s killing are like people of color in Christopher Walken’s army. And he just, like, he just kills everyone. It’s pretty ridiculous. But there are two favorite scenes in this. There’s one where they fall down a cliff for an exceptionally long time.
Greg: Yeah. It’s a it’s.
Joe: Comically long of a drop. And then there’s Christopher Walken explaining the tooth fairy to people while trying to talk with a translator. The translator with the tooth. There he is. I have no idea of that movie if that was completely ad libbed or what, but that scene is perfect. But I turn it to you, Greg, sweetheart, why is The Rundown a great bad movie?
Greg: This is such a good movie. This is a movie that’s been requested for us, by the way, by a few different friends of mine. This movie is beloved, and it’s not, you know, anywhere near one of the top movies that came out that year. I googled 2003 today because I just was thinking, this is the most 2003 movie in history.
Greg: Top three movies were Lord of the Rings The Return of the King, Finding Nemo, and The Matrix Reloaded in 2003, and the top three albums were Norah Jones, 50 Cent and Linkin Park, and I just feel like what The Rundown shows is, it’s encapsulating a lot of Michael Bay fun and Tony Scott fun from the 90s, but it’s also bringing in Dwayne The Rock Johnson, only billed in this movie as the Rock, not Dwayne or Johnson, just the Rock, but it’s also produced by WWE.
Greg: So there was, you know, all the wrestling tie and stuff. He like, he does his wrestling move in this movie. Yeah, but it’s a movie that shouldn’t be good. This is my favorite kind of movie that we watch for this show. It’s one of those movies where you watch it, you don’t expect much from it, and then afterwards there are things that stand out, like falling down that mountain.
Greg: Yeah, a scene that was shown at the beginning of the fall Guy movie we covered a couple of episodes ago, when they’re just kind of introducing what stunt people do in movies, but they fall down this hill forever. And for this, you know, it’s a it’s a really good scene, actually. Why don’t why don’t we go to the clip?
Greg: Should we go to the clip? Yeah. Let’s go. Here we go.
Clip: Oh, oh.
Clip: 000.
Greg: Oh.
Clip: Oh oh.
Clip: Oh oh.
Clip: Oh.
Clip: Oh oh.
Clip: Oh oh.
Greg: This is where they hit the water. But when I was watching this for the first time, I was like, hold on. That was actually kind of amazing. You know, like, they just kind of kept going, like, oh, wait a minute. They’re doing. They do that a few times in this movie. Yeah. Where they take something and just kind of like, well, what if we just did the best version of that that’s ever been captured on film?
Greg: And I read that the inspiration for that part of the movie was actually from an old show called The Wide World of Sports. There was an episode where they showed like epic fails or something, and there was one where a skier started tumbling down a mountain and then just fell down the mountain for a really long time.
Greg: And they just thought, what if we did that? It was even longer. So this is a great movie because Peter Berg is an actor turned director, and he is allowing the actors to really just kind of shine and be themselves. I feel like Sean William Scott is showing us who he was, as was he, Stiffler in, American Pie.
Greg: He’s showing us the funny side, but he also is showing way more. He was showing that he could be a movie star for the next 20 years if he wanted to be, and I did not Google why that didn’t happen. I’m sure there’s some story. This movie set him up to be my next favorite. Harrison Ford really? He’s definitely kind of doing Harrison Ford ish stuff, but also just just being snarky.
Greg: You know, when somebody tells him to shut up, he goes, you shut up. You know, the rock is completely setting the tone. Like, if this if this movie has a brand, it really is just the rock. And he just said, you know, we could do this for the next 30 years if you want, guys. And he basically has, you know, who he is in this movie is who he is in every movie.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Yeah. You got the full rock range, which is it’s pretty narrow. You know, you’re going to get. Yep. He’s not winning any Oscars for acting, but he’s not going to ruin a movie either. I think I watched this a couple times over the last week, and I think the second time I was a little harder for me.
Joe: I was more bullish on this movie. The first time I watched it, I had only seen it in the theater, and it was one of those movies that surprised me of like, oh, it’s this, oh, this is what the movie is, you know? Because they kind of build it a little bit more like a comedy. And it’s not funny moments, but it kind of takes us out pretty seriously in terms of like an action movie where you think it’s going to be a little bit more of like a almost like The fall guy is like a comedy.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. You know, but they’re trying. And I felt like they build it more as a comedy and as a little bit more serious. And it takes itself seriously, which I love, but it’s also my favorite kind of movie.
Greg: But it’s also really funny.
Joe: It’s good. It does have some really funny moments. And I think the chemistry between Sean William Scott and the Rock is awesome.
Greg: Really good.
Joe: Yeah. And so they’re they have some great scenes together. Yeah, I think I ended up struggling with it a little bit as I kind of was like, oh, this is there are some the parts of like the indigenous culture that they kind of tokenize.
Greg: Sure, sure.
Joe: The second time watching, I was like, oh, it’s pretty glaringly.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: 2003 with no real nod to like, how kind of bad some of it looked. But I also, you know, if you’re watching this movie and expecting it to be a masterpiece and cultural, you know, sensitivity, then you’re come to the wrong place.
Greg: Sure.
Joe: Yeah. It’s just not that. But it’s got some really fun moments in it. My favorite ones are the Rock and Sean William Scott when they’re together. Yeah, they’re just really funny. Yeah. And then Christopher Walken stealing every scene he’s in is just so perfect.
Greg: I bet we talked about this. And Man on Fire or Man on Fire episode Christopher Walken. Apparently, when he gets a script, he takes out all the punctuation, and you can tell when he’s reading his lines or saying his lines like they don’t start and end the way regular sentences would. And he puts really bizarre emphasis on things.
Greg: And so I feel like he’s doing that just to a tee in this movie. This really could just be a paycheck for him. And we’re all better for it. Yeah. But if you’re wondering what Christopher Walken is like in this movie he’s just pure Christopher Walken. He’s just Christopher Walken, you know.
Joe: He is distilled perfectly. Yeah. Got a scene at the end, some lines where he’s talking about, like, I built you a city and like of, like, all the stuff is for these people as he’s like, extracting gold from from them. And it’s just hilarious how he delivers his lines. Unfortunately, he’s a really likable bad guy. So, like, I kind of root for him a little bit throughout this, even though he’s doing terrible things in it.
Joe: He is just so fun to watch in the movie that I wanted more of him. What I wanted.
Greg: He’s forcing the indigenous Brazilian people to work in a mine. And he is kind of like charging them for every little thing that they do to make their work life better. Yeah. He’s basically slave labor right. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah. To me it’s like the way they, I feel like they pitched it. It’s like midnight run meets Raiders of the lost Ark. Yeah. And that’s kind of what it is.
Greg: Here’s let me read a quote for you. This is from producer Kevin Fisher. I hope I’m pronouncing his last name right. He called the film Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark, which is not the name of a movie, but we’ll go with that. You know what he’s talking about? Yeah. Meets romancing the Stone with a little bit of midnight run.
Joe: Yeah, exactly.
Greg: And this movie is maybe as good as romancing the Stone. They’re kind of on the same tier for me.
Joe: I think so I have not seen that in so long, but I, I can’t there’s more. Obviously, romance in romancing the Stone. Right.
Greg: Yeah. It’s Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. A movie directed by Robert Zemeckis. It’s the reason Robert Zemeckis was able to continue making movies was because he directed a film that wasn’t his script, and that was a hit. So they let Ryan continue. So he was making movies that he and Bob Gale were writing that just weren’t doing anything.
Greg: And then back to the future was next. So that worked out for everybody.
Joe: Yeah. So I can totally see romancing the Stone because they also have a falling down a cliff. Yep. Scene. Yep. Okay. That’s all it. All that’s all clicking in for me now. I’m in. I’m back in on this movie.
Greg: I definitely see Sean William Scott doing Indiana Jones ish moves in the way he’s kind of like flinching and moving his eyes. And there’s just like mannerisms, like the way he moves his mouth at a certain time to smirk or whatever, gloriously going in to do stupid things. And then everything backfires on him. So I feel like he is very Indiana Jones in this movie.
Greg: And then Midnight Run is potentially one of my favorite movies of my lifetime. It’s so good. It’s Robert De Niro and oh no.
Joe: I’m the Charles Grodin.
Greg: Charles Grodin. Yeah, I can’t believe it’s based on Charles Grodin. Yeah.
Joe: Shots fired at Charles.
Greg: I know, I know. I mean, potentially one of the best movies either of them have been in. And that’s really saying something. And it was, directed by Martin Brest, who did Beverly Hills Cop right before that. So that’s how he had the cachet to do it. Midnight ride is incredible. So needless to say, those three movies put together.
Greg: You have a movie for Greg, sweetheart. That’s basically all I’m saying, man. I feel like, Pete Bird really lets Rosario Dawson and, Sean William Scott and the Rock have interesting scenes. They really interact with each other, and we’re allowed to improv with each other. I don’t know, I, I think it really says something when an actor directs.
Greg: So there’s some secret sauce there where there isn’t a divide between the people in the movie and the person who’s kind of running the show. How would you describe Petersburg’s direction of this movie? What does it remind you of?
Joe: It reminds me of a Guy Ritchie movie. That’s what I had.
Greg: Yeah. Oh, I didn’t even think of that. That’s true.
Joe: Spoiler alert for the drinking games. There’s one of mine. Is every time you think you’re watching a Guy Ritchie film, take a drink. Because he does. Especially in the beginning.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Where the rock is, you know, like the opening scene. He’s talking to somebody, and it’s like he’s giving a long speech of like, yeah, this person’s, defensive line from this person. Like, they do like this clips and like.
Greg: Yeah, there’s like sports TV motion design happening. Yeah. The giving stats was ridiculous is what it was. Yeah. Yeah.
Joe: So yeah. So that was who I took away from it. I’m dying to know who you think this is.
Greg: I just got so much Michael Bay and Tony Scott from this. Yeah, especially in some of the editing. The Rock has some sort of super power where he’s able to, like, take in the whole scene and kind of see what’s going on in the camera is like really close up on, I don’t know, everybody’s eyes and everybody’s guns.
Greg: And I don’t know, there’s just that, that kind of movie. There must be a Michael Bay or a Tony Scott movie where this happens.
Joe: Yeah, I feel like between the Tony Scott, Michael Bay and Guy Ritchie, they all make very similar kinds of movies. Yeah, I feel like Michael Bay makes movies that have no soul to them, right? I really struggle with him. I like Tony Scott films. I think he has. I’ve grown to appreciate him more after his passing than I did when he was making movies.
Joe: Yeah, but I definitely feel like he is an underrated director, especially action movie director. He’s able to really lean into getting the most out of his actors and and the characters. And yeah, Guy Ritchie kind of makes, you know, and I’m thinking about, like when I watch it in the theater, you know.
Greg: I was 128.
Joe: 27, you know, it’s for men 18 to 34.
Greg: Yeah. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. You know, so that’s it’s definitely leaning hard into those sorts of tropes and action movies and you know clearly we have not grown up at all because those are still the movies that you love to watch. But I definitely see Michael Bay and Tony Scott in the direction that I wonder if Peter Berg ever worked with the, you know, those directors.
Joe: I’m trying to remember his off the top of my head. I can’t think of anything he did, but.
Greg: No, I don’t think he had been in one. Well, there’s definitely like editing decisions and I guess it’s mostly in editing. It’s also in kind of some of the production, some of the how he’s filming it. But this movie, would you describe this movie as a soulless movie? I wouldn’t.
Joe: Know, I wouldn’t.
Greg: Either. Yeah, I think the characters are better in this movie than I would have anticipated. Sean William Scott is better than I think I’ve ever seen him in anything. I’m sure I haven’t seen a lot of stuff with him lately. Rosario Dawson is awesome in this movie. Except for the accent.
Joe: Yeah, another spoiler alert on my drinking game. Yeah.
Greg: But her character is great. Not like a romantic interest, thank goodness. Yeah.
Joe: You think they’re going to, like, pigeonhole or kind of stick it on somewhere, right? And it it never does. And that I really appreciated that.
Greg: Like there’s that scene when they’re in the boat. We think she’s just like a bartender. Then it turns out she’s actually the leader of this, like, rebellion army. And there’s a scene with the three of them in a boat where she’s kind of like trying to get Sean William Scott to show her where this artifact is. The Gato.
Greg: Is she, like, she’s so great in that scene? I really love that scene.
Clip: All right. This is the way it’s going to be. You’re going to take me to a job.
Clip: And you’re going to take me now calm down. Don’t. You saw what they do. Don’t ever tell me to calm down.
Greg: Don’t ever tell me to calm down. Like that’s what female protagonists in the movie in 2003 was saying that in this kind of movie, there was kind of like a little bit of a, I don’t know, I didn’t expect something that good in a movie like this, you know. Yeah, it resonates today to, you know, it opens with the Rock listening to some sort of audiobook about porcini mushrooms, apparently is doing some kind of big research for some kind of restaurant.
Greg: He’s about to start. Yeah, that’s like his main motivation in the movie. And, it’s mentioned a few times, but almost entirely forgotten by me as I watch it. Did they not mention it much?
Joe: They mentioned it at the beginning and at the end.
Greg: Yeah, right.
Joe: And that’s really it. Maybe one other time in the middle that he’s trying to open a restaurant. That’s the midnight run. If you know that’s Robert De Niro’s character. Midnight run is wants to open a restaurant. Like that’s.
Greg: His motivation. Yeah.
Joe: So that was the midnight run piece for me of, like, tracking down a fugitive. It’s his last job. He needs $100,000 to open a restaurant. Yeah, yeah, but it’s not really mentioned very much. They probably could have done a better job. If they made it today. They’d be a little bit more of a, you know, breadcrumbs throughout the story on him wanting to open a restaurant and being a chef.
Joe: It’s not really. It’s one of those like in the fall Guy. They used a lot of those breadcrumbs. So like everything that you saw in the movie ties to another scene further on that part of it. Like you could cut out the fact that he wants to be a chef and like nobody, the movie doesn’t change one one bit at all.
Greg: So I’m glad they kept it in.
Joe: Yeah, it kind of it gives them the motivation for the one last job that he, you know, he wants to retire and get out of the game and all of that. So that’s.
Greg: Right. It’s pretty well written movie. I think we could talk about the writers for a second. There are two very different people. There’s one guy named RJ Stewart, and he worked on Remington Steel, the show with Pierce Brosnan. And then he he wrote Major League Two. All right. And his IMDb page is mostly Xena Warrior Princess.
Greg: Okay. And so he worked on this movie, and then also a guy named James Vanderbilt worked on it, and he wrote basic with John Travolta. Directed by John McTiernan. I think John McTiernan. Last movie. After The Rundown, he wrote Zodiac, which Fincher directed. So this is an incredible movie, one of the best of our time. And then he wrote The Losers, a movie we will definitely be getting to.
Greg: Yes.
Joe: We’re big fans of that movie.
Greg: Absolutely white House down, he wrote. The Amazing Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man two, a story by credit on that. He wrote truth, which I think is a Dan Rather biopic. He wrote the second Independence Day. So I have to think some of the best writing came from him.
Joe: Action movie royalty under his belt there. Yeah.
Greg: So yeah, yeah. So yeah, I definitely noticed things that they were saying in the beginning of this movie where like when the Rock goes to talk to Sean, William Scott’s dad, who’s like his boss, and he owes him and a $250,000 something at that. Yeah. And he just says, if you do this last job, you’ll be free. I’ll give you your cash to go start your restaurant.
Greg: But he also says something like, his son had made a lot of mistakes, and he says something like something you might know about. Like they kind of allude to the Rock’s past, but they never really get into it. Yeah, but I just really liked they said it like, oh, that’s just that’s a character building moment that we don’t need any more information.
Greg: But, you know, they’re kind of letting us know there were moments like that during this movie. I was like, oh, that’s good writing right there. That’s they’re turning a dumb movie into something that’s actually worth me paying attention and thinking about it, you know? But yeah, the sports show stuff at the very beginning came from the XFL, which Vince McMahon was right.
Greg: You know, running the XFL back then, that’s no longer around. Right. We’re done with that.
Joe: It’s been merged with another with the USFL into the UFL. So there’s like a spring football.
Greg: League okay okay.
Joe: So but it’s still parts of it are still around.
Greg: So that all came from that. And you know this movie was produced by the WWE, which is Vince McMahon’s thing. Dwayne Johnson later became a co-owner of the XFL. So that’s interesting. But that opening, I just thought, this is for people who are like, should I watch this movie that just I stumbled upon on cable right now in 2004?
Greg: That’s that’s what that is for. Yeah. And it is completely abandoned afterwards. It turns into a real movie after that. I really don’t understand why they did it. I thought it was pretty dumb. And then I read the Vince McMahon fact.
Joe: Yeah, there’s no reason other than it’s a not so subtle passing of the torch to the rock from, like, Arnold Schwarzenegger. You know, he kind of have that. And, in my, real back of the box, I kind of get into that a little bit of, I’m.
Greg: Sure.
Joe: The tag team. Okay, your turn. You’re up.
Greg: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Arnold walks by him.
Clip: A the front.
Greg: Like the rock, is walking into the opening club and Arnold Schwarzenegger is walking by and just says, have fun. And the rock kind of stares at him after he walks by. For a little while, people kind of viewed that as him handing the torch over. I think he was. Was he governor at that point in 2002, 2003?
Joe: He must have been. I think he was.
Greg: Yeah, yeah, that came about because, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rock were having lunch in Universal Studios where they were filming this or wherever they were filming this. I might be remembering that. Right. And Peter Berg walked up and said hi, and then said, would you want to have a cameo in this? And Arnold said, I will if we do it right now.
Greg: And 15 minutes later they were on the set shooting that awesome. Isn’t that amazing?
Joe: That is. That’s awesome. Yeah. And that scene is totally tacked on there. It’s like, you know, character building in that the Rock or his character Beck can basically beat up anybody, no matter the stakes. And, you know, he’s good to go from there. So it’s kind of classic action movie trope of opening in an action scene that not tell you, but show you how good the hero.
Greg: Is, right? And he really doesn’t want to. He’s there to collect some cash for his boss. And from a football player. And he really doesn’t want to fight because he’s a fan of the football team. Yeah. And they’re about to have an important game and he doesn’t want to beat them up. Yeah. So he’s like the reluctant hero in this one.
Greg: He’s like don’t make me do my job here. Yeah. And is that also where we find out that he hates guns in that scene?
Joe: I think they pat them down or something like that getting in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hate Gandia. Right.
Greg: Which is, which is a dumb conceit in this movie, but I’m thinking 2003. I was like, oh, that’s interesting. Yeah.
Joe: What a brave choice for an action movie.
Greg: But then of course, he, you know, has like a crazy fight scene or he’s doing his his wrestling moves in there. I’m sure a lot of the people he was fighting were like wrestlers in the WWE as well.
Joe: Yeah, I’m sure reluctant though.
Greg: That’s kind of how he’s playing this. Don’t make me do this. Don’t make me go back to my dark past of whatever it was. Yeah, yeah. I think the fact that he was hesitant was great. I also like that after that he goes to his boss’s house and he’s holding up like a frozen bag of vegetables on his head in a scene just to.
Greg: Yeah, I think he does a lot to make himself vulnerable in like the first act of this movie. He really shows like, I don’t want to be doing this, which was a good choice. He’s afraid of, like, the plane that he takes to get to Brazil. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah. You and Bremner from Trainspotting fame. Right. Making basically a cameo is there’s, you know. Yeah, he’s a character that has no bearing on the plot, really, but he’s pretty funny.
Greg: Is he Scottish? But he’s doing an Irish accent. Is that what’s happening here?
Joe: I don’t know what accent he’s doing. I know he’s Scottish.
Greg: Yeah, I think he was doing like a Northern Irish accent.
Joe: Interesting.
Greg: But when he’s flat, when he’s flying the flame, like you, I had to have the subtitles on. Like, you can’t understand what he’s saying. Yeah, but he’s saying there’s balls on the ground back saying there’s booze on the ground. Yeah, I love the rock. It’s just like blues on the grind. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah. He’s a funny character. And they’re you know, they got, they got some like real actors for this. Yeah. Well so yeah that that makes it.
Greg: I also love that he continually calls the rock little fella. That’s what he calls them the whole time. That was that was a nice touch. And then yeah we meet Sean William Scott and Rosario Dawson and they have like a sort of like a meet cute. Sort of like he brings her flowers, arms trying to like woo her.
Greg: She’s running a bar. Yeah. They’re talking about going to get the gateau together, which is some sort of Raiders of the Lost Ark statue. Yeah, made of gold. And you see that he’s kind of dumb and she’s tough. That’s what we get out of that scene. It’s like old Hollywood.
Joe: Yeah. She sees through him. But you still think that there might be some romance which thankfully they don’t go there.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: As everyone knows my, my view on romance. Right. And these kinds of movies get it out of there.
Greg: She’s basically pulling a Karen Allen actually now that I think of it from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yeah. Interesting.
Joe: Wow. We’re missing as her drinking shots of, alcohol with, with a Nazi. And we’re good to go.
Greg: I’m sure they shot it. Yeah.
Greg: And then when they show kind of the town in Brazil, they do all kinds of just crazy editing where, like, somebody puts a domino down on a table for. No, you know, they it’s like it’s closeup of somebody putting a domino down out of nowhere and it’s like, oh, you know. Yeah, just crazy editing for no reason. Probably just so that I’ll keep watching it on, on cable, you know.
Joe: Yeah. There were some interesting choices that Peter Berg does. And in some of the shots. So there’s a clear green screen shot where they show the mine, which looks like the worst place in the world, which is humongous. Yeah. But like soars out over and then kind of the camera drops into the center of it. They do another one like that where they’re escaping on foot through the jungle, and then the camera, like, shoots up and then moves over, pans over and drops to the.
Joe: Yeah, the people chasing them in cars. Yeah. To me it was a little distracting and like, oh yeah, this is definitely like early director. Like you’re throwing everything into it.
Greg: Over stylized.
Joe: Over stylize, you know. And that’s to me a hallmark of Guy Ritchie films.
Greg: Sure. Yeah.
Joe: Especially like I think of like snatch and Lock stock. Yeah. You know, and they work but there’s still their moments are like, okay, it’s all a little distracting at times for me. Yeah, that was definitely where I had a few moments of like, oh, do we need to do this?
Greg: Yeah, yeah. It’s kind of holding on to that form versus function part of the 90s in the arts that I kind of forgot about. Yeah, luckily we sort of got rid of that.
Joe: And he doesn’t do it. And like to me it’s like it stands out because he doesn’t it doesn’t do it enough throughout the movie.
Greg:
Joe: Where it just becomes kind of part of the style where it kind of is like borrowing pieces from here and there as when it’s not like.
Greg: It’s totally piecemeal. You’re right. Yeah. But the real magic of the movie is like when the Rock and Sean William Scott, they’re talking to the Brazilians who are speaking Portuguese at them, and Sean William Scott is speaking Portuguese back. And Sean William Scott in Portuguese is saying like, you should attack my friend. Yeah, yeah. And the Rock is saying, tell them that I’m a friend, you know, and and you know, I will not hurt them.
Greg: And they, they’re getting more hostile towards the rock. Why do I get the feeling you really suck Portuguese?
Greg: Just like moments like that happened a few times in this movie. And it’s the thing that when I walked away from this movie the first time, I was like, that was great. I mean, they were really good together. Do you.
Joe: Know how much of the film are of their scenes, especially some of like.
Greg: Like.
Joe: They after they fall down the impossibly long cliff and then they’re, you know, as ad lib just between the two of them.
Greg: I think quite a bit.
Joe: Yeah. Because it felt funny and like, not writer Lee. Yeah. And yeah, what it was, it just felt like two people kind of just riffing together because you could cut a lot of it out of the film, and it wouldn’t affect the plot or the character development, but it’s funny and it’s fun and it’s, you know, they have great chemistry together.
Joe: And so I that’s what I, I, I like those scenes the best.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: When they’re just together being fairly ridiculous.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Kind of going through some of the tropes but also being pretty funny and charming at the same time.
Greg: When I walked out of it, those that connection between them and the the extended action sequences were the things that pushed it into great for me. Like, this is a great movie. I think this is a great movie. This is also a bad movie. Yeah, but this is a movie that definitely has greatness, like that fight that they have with the Brazilian people.
Greg: That’s a great fight. I’m sure those were all stunt people who are in that fight. There’s like tons of wire work, invisible wire work happening where people are, you know, changing direction midair and stuff like that.
Joe: I remember watching it in the theater as well, and they are definitely having some fun, you know, and kind of after we’ve done some of these movies with, you know, David Leech and, yeah, extraction and those, like, I’ve done. And I think you have to like deep dives into the stunt coordinators. And you just see the, you know, the, all the stunt people and the movies that I like.
Joe: Yeah. Have basically this a lot of the same stunt coordinators and stunt actors on all of them. So there’s just, there’s clearly a fraternity of, of folks doing really cool stuff that we, you know, clearly we like and resonates. But yeah, that fight seems really fun. But the end fight scene, even though it’s a little over the top and just like lots of killing brown people, unfortunately there are some just ridiculous moments in it that the rock jumps through a beam.
Joe: And yeah, destroy that and then like, punches through another one to have the platform that the bad guys are on collapse.
Greg: Right? Right.
Joe: So perfect and so just ridiculous at the same time.
Greg: He gets to like a breaking point where he, he picks up the guns. And then, you know, he’s said, I don’t like guns so many times. And then we get to see whatever this past world that he lived in, you know, he’s just, like, amazing with these two shotguns. And he does, like, every possible thing you can do with two shotguns in your hands, like, yeah.
Greg: He keeps, like, swinging them into his armpits and, like, double cocking them and then swinging them back forward. You know, there’s one moment where he ends the two guns, just like next to each other at two people, and they both get shot like he’s holding them together. I don’t know how to describe this. They. He’s not holding them in two hands.
Greg: He’s holding both guns in one hand and somehow shoots two guns side by side. It’s just madness. Just so dumb. But at that point in the movie, I was just like, I love to two guns here that have an endless amount of ammo. There’s no need that ever. Reload these guns now.
Joe: Yeah, and walking down the middle of a street while people are shooting at him.
Greg: That’s that’s just great. Bad shots everywhere.
Joe: Everywhere.
Joe: This movie, you could watch it as a, is great bad shots in a nutshell.
Greg: Absolutely.
Joe: Every time they shoot at the good guy is not even weighing them. They don’t even get, like, shot a little bad or on the side or, you know, on the farm. Yeah. Never. They never get shot.
Greg: No, no, never. Well, does he he does get shot, right?
Joe: The rock does. And he gets shot with beanbags at the beginning by another bounty hunter.
Greg: Right. Slow motion beanbag. Yeah. Beanbag guns. It’s pretty good idea.
Joe: But that’s the only time he gets punched a couple times. But it gets beat up by the Brazilian freedom fighters or whatever, so. Right.
Greg: But then they become friends at the fire. Yeah, a scene I liked. They talk about Muhammad Ali. It’s like they were able to condense two Fast and Furious movies into one rundown. Yeah. Where the bad guy from one Fast and Furious movie becomes the good guy in the next one. Yeah, they just pulled that halfway through. And this.
Joe: One. Exactly. Yeah.
Greg: It’s amazing. Oh, when they finally get to find the Gato, which is like, Raiders of the Lost Ark golden statue, they have to go through some sort of like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade maze, where they have to, like, know certain languages or something.
Joe: Yeah, something on the floor with rights. How to get through it. Yeah. Still was falling down on top of them. And it’s man, the CGI is rough on that scene.
Greg: I mean, how many CGI close calls were there? That scene, just like they must be like scratched at this point, right? No. Yeah. Not at all. Did you like, before they go into that mineshaft when they had to swim kind of underneath the waterfall to get there? And, Rosario Dawson just says no side to the rock.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Don’t pee in the water because the parasites. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I thought that was another moment that, like, you don’t need in this, but no, it’s kind of funny.
Greg: Yes. Yeah. Don’t pee in the water because they’ll swim up your to is what she says. Yeah.
Clip: Swim up my what you’ve been to it is swim up your thing down. And once it gets in you can’t get it out.
Greg: It had me a ding dong. Like, that’s just perfect. That’s amazing. And then. But then The Rock’s response to that.
Clip: Not this board to,
Greg: Not today, not today, maybe laugh out loud alone at my house.
Joe: Could there be a more rock line?
Greg: No.
Joe: Delivered in like the rock way.
Greg: 200%. 100%? Yeah. This is like the movie that made him a movie star. You know, he made $12.5 million in this movie. First big movie, $12.5 million. That’s incredible. Yeah, that really is Arnold Schwarzenegger handing over the the baton.
Joe: Yeah. And probably helps that he had Vince McMahon.
Greg:
Joe: As the producer. But yeah that’s pretty that’s a yeah. It was shocking quite frankly that it did as well I thought I do remember when it came out and it was, it was kind of like the conversation was is he going to be a movie star. Can he make the transition from wrestling. Yeah, to the big screen.
Joe: And clearly the answer is yes. And we’re sitting here now, 20 some years later, and he’s one of the biggest action stars on the planet.
Greg: Are you ready for the conversation about the Rock?
Joe: Sure. Let’s do it.
Greg: It’s I mean, the conversation that needed to happen about the Rock, obviously is happening right now. Is the Rock great?
Joe: I think he’s a great action star in the vein of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Greg:
Joe: Sylvester Stallone from the 80s. But really I think Arnold Schwarzenegger is his doppelganger.
Greg: And like yeah.
Joe: He’s hit that. It almost feels like now sometimes bordering on satire of his movies.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: I was watching Hobbs and Shaw again.
Greg: I’m loving it. Obviously, we’ll get the Hobbs Shaw. Yeah.
Joe: But, you know, it’s it’s the same character that he’s playing in this movie that he’s playing in Hobbs and Shaw, that he’s playing and basically everything that he’s in. So like his range as an actor.
Greg:
Joe: Is not awesome. But he’s in it I’m also. Yeah. But I’m not going to watch his movies because I’m like well I really want to watch Daniel Day Lewis.
Greg: Right.
Joe: Show me how great an actor is. I’m, I want to see him beat up people and stuff blow up in the background and. Yeah, so there are times when I get a little it’s a little tiresome for me with him. Honestly, this movie, I don’t feel that way. I think I like it, but there there were moments that even in the Hobbs and Shaw where it was like, or just over the top of the rock ness.
Greg: Yeah, that’s like early Arnold’s later Arnold is vulnerable and it’s interesting that the Rock started vulnerable. And is now a caricature. Yeah. So what do.
Joe: You think about the Rock.
Greg: I think he has a lower ceiling than Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger do. Like I don’t think his movies ever reach those heights, but they’re always consistently entertaining to me. Yeah I think he hasn’t had many great, great movies. And I suppose you’d kind of have to be hard pressed to look for which Arnold movies are great. Great movies too.
Greg: What’s what’s his peak? Terminator two? Probably Total Recall in that era.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. Total Recall, Terminator two.
Greg: I mean, you could go the other side of the coin where twins is really funny.
Joe: Yeah. Kindergarten cop.
Greg: Yeah, I think.
Joe: Arnold is an underrated comedic.
Greg: Actor. Yeah. That’s true.
Joe: I watched his show on Netflix with its blue bar.
Greg:
Joe: Which is basically him kind of playing a caricature of himself or kind of his characters as he’s aged. And it’s, it’s funny and it’s good. I’m not watching that because I’m like, this is like premiere television. That’s stupid spy show where his daughter and he’s trying to save his daughter, and you know, there’s some tension there. And it’s funny.
Greg: Is he playing like a famous actor?
Joe: No, he’s playing like a spy. Okay. But like, his family doesn’t know he’s a spy and his daughter is a spy. And then they find out on a job together.
Greg: Okay, so it’s like True Lies. The show.
Joe: Sort of. Yeah. Sort of.
Greg: Did you ever.
Joe: Watch true Lies? Might be his also another peak because that movie. I love that movie so much.
Greg: We’ll get to True Lies.
Greg: Did you ever watch the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie JCB?
Joe: No.
Greg: We’ll get to JCB. But also he did a show on Amazon called Jean-Claude Van Johnson, where he plays a character who basically was junk, like Van Damme, but he’s now a spy author. And so, like, he’s doing missions. His boss is Mrs. Cosby from The Cosby Show, Phylicia Rashad, is that her name who was also incredible in The Beekeeper with Statham?
Greg: We’ll get to The Beekeeper. Are you kidding me? Great bad mundane jobs. That’s the, that’s the series will be in on that. Anyways, back to the Rock. I think the Rock is very consistent. Sometimes it’s questionable. Like rampage was an amazing skyscraper was an amazing. He had a couple in a row there. So I think this is probably one of his best because he’s playing it more vulnerable than usual.
Joe: Like a lot of actors I think he’s better than in an ensemble like the first. Jumanji is a great movie. It’s really funny. Yeah, he’s really funny in it. Yeah. It’s got a, you know, a great cast. So I think when he doesn’t need to carry the movie, it’s better.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: I think of, you know, our favorite Fast and Furious is Fast five. He’s in that. But he is he’s not the main character in that, right. He’s got a really pivotal role in it. But he’s not, you know, and he’s full on the rock in that as well.
Greg: Totally.
Joe: Yeah. But I also feel like it’s telling that and talking about the Rock. We ended up talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger more than we talked about the Rock.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: And you know, no one in saying Arnold Schwarzenegger was a great actor, but I feel like he’s got more range than the Rock does.
Greg: I think you’re right. I think this movie would have been horrible without the Rock. In fact, Peter Berg said that this movie could have been a dark, vicious action thriller, but the fact that it’s playful and funny is a tribute to the Rock. He’s a charming, charismatic and very smart man. So I think he kind of willed this to be what it is, and it’s on his back, and I think it would be better.
Greg: I don’t know if it could have been better. I mean, it could have been better as a movie, but like, you were talking about Jack black being around Kevin Hart, being around Karen Gillan, the four of them are incredible together. Maybe there should have been a fourth in this movie, maybe more. Declan. We just need it more. Declan.
Greg: Yeah, for the boots on the ground. I got the beans all night. Drained. Yeah.
Joe: Shall we get to the back of the box in case people want to?
Greg: Oh my gosh. Yeah, there’s probably people who haven’t seen this movie. So if you have not seen this movie and, you want to go rent it in a blockbuster because it is now 2003, walk up to this DVD box and look at the back. And, we’re going to tell you what the back of that box says.
Joe: As always with.
Greg: These.
Joe: When we start talking about them, I end up liking the movie more. So I was a little bit down on this movie when I wrote my real back of the box when I got to it, so you’ll see, I won’t edit it in the moment, but I was struggling with the movie. Now I’m like, back in, I’m all in, I’m all back in on the rundown.
Joe: But here’s the back of the box and Blockbuster Video or wherever you are getting your videos these days.
Joe: It’s the back of the box. When bounty hunter backed Iraq is tasked with bringing Travis Walker, Sean William Scott home, he inadvertently stumbles into a gold mining operation, stripping the Amazon of its resources. Now forced to take sides for once in his life, can back defeat his inner demons and save the town. This movie packs a punch and then some, with an explosive finale guaranteed to satisfy.
Joe: That’s that’s the back of the box right there. I’m watching that movie every time.
Greg: How is it that you aren’t in marketing?
Joe: Yeah, I don’t know.
Greg: Okay, so that’s the back of the box. And it’s that is exactly what that box said. I’m sure I’m sure we could find a box of this movie. Yeah, but you’re saying that you feel a little bit differently than when you wrote the real back in the box. So let’s hear what your real back of the box was.
Greg: That was a little bit more dour than than you feel now. Yeah.
Joe: All right. So real back in the box. All right. To take a wrestling metaphor, this is the proverbial tagging in of the next action star Arnold Schwarzenegger even cameos in the opening scene. It has all the toxic masculinity you can handle, filled with one dimensional characters yelling at each other. Yet I still have a soft spot for this movie, if for nothing else, than Christopher Walken making every scene he is in perfect.
Joe: There are some very fun action scenes and genuinely funny moments wrapped around a movie you will forget in five minutes.
Greg: It’s pretty good. Yeah, it’s about right. It’s a great bad movie. All right. Yeah, it’s.
Joe: A great bad movie. It’s got all the all of what we love and the pieces that are we are troublesome as well.
Greg: Absolutely. Did you like the scene when Rosario Dawson gives them the Con Lobos, which makes them kind of start to hallucinate and everybody’s face starts to kind of like balloon in different directions?
Joe: I did like that scene because I remember when I watched it the first time in the theater. That was the scene that told me that they weren’t going to go down the romantic trope, which at that point would have felt really just like Hansard into the plot. Yeah. Or like, who is she going to pick? Is it, you know, the Rock or Sean, Liam, Scott and who’s them, you know.
Joe: Right. And this is just like, nope, we’re not going that way.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Know. And so I appreciated it for that purpose. It’s a little silly and it comes back at the end. So I appreciated that I yeah I like that. What about you. How did you feel about that.
Greg: Oh I thought it was hilarious. That and the well when it was happening, when they were kind of showing like the ridiculous face kind of smooshing and stuff, the, the effect, I was just like, oh, thank goodness they’re doing it. Okay. Yeah. This is, you know, just like a virtue signal. Like, I say this all the time.
Greg: Okay, great. This is a movie that I can just sit back and enjoy, you know, don’t even think about it too much. I felt that way about when the monkeys kind of go after the rock and start, like, humping his face. Yeah. And then when they’re actually affected by the Lobos on the ground the next morning and they can’t move their bodies still, and the monkeys start coming, they start like, screaming, but they can’t really move their mouths.
Greg: Pretty funny. Yeah, I’m here for it.
Joe: Yeah. The monkey scene rode right up against the edge of my this. Where are they going with this?
Greg: Yeah, yeah, but it didn’t go over the line, did it?
Joe: Yeah. No it didn’t. Everybody got it right. Like right. Right to the very very edge but didn’t didn’t cross it totally. You know, it was like an Adam Sandler movie. We were just like fright driven across the line.
Greg: Yeah. Grown-Ups three. That’s right. Taz. Yeah, these monkey scenes. But you’re mentioning Rosario Dawson when they kind of signal this isn’t going to be a romantic movie. And I feel like in the scenes when it’s almost like The Rocks or Sean William Scott are playing their side of that kind of scene, her character says that is not what’s happening right now, like when she’s hiking with the Rock and he says, you and I were we’re kind of a like, you came from a tough time, and I went through a tough time or whatever.
Greg: And she’s just, like, smirking. And she’s like, we are nothing alike. Yeah. I don’t you don’t know what you’re talking about at all. I just love that she keeps throwing that stuff back in their face.
Joe: Yeah, yeah. She’s like, I like you back, but we’re nothing alike or. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Greg: That’s a good scene.
Joe: That was a good scene.
Greg: Well written. We got to know a little bit about his history. Not really. He’s kind of vaguely alludes to it again, but. Yeah. But, you know, I love a double cross. She steals the golden gato, and then one thing leads to another and Declan shows up with some bagpipes and starts like quoting, I think, the Bible, and then just starts reciting a poem as a bunch of bulls.
Greg: A bunch of cows run into the town.
Joe: Yeah, that Declan scene is I was like, what is happening?
Greg: Yeah, yeah, because it doesn’t make any sense.
Joe: He is clearly in a different movie.
Greg: So I guess what.
Joe: Yeah, it’s a clear taking it to serious. Like there’s like a voiceover as the last action scene is happening and yeah, taking it really seriously and quite frankly.
Greg: I like that. Yeah. I mean, what they’ve told us about Christopher Walken and his henchmen is that they will just immediately shoot anyone who’s annoying them at any moment. And so the fact that he was able to say all of those things and not just immediately get shot by them really surprised me. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, it sets up the whole, like, the cows run through and that’s how they start the action sequence.
Greg: Christopher Walken says that’s a lot of cows. Yeah, you’ve.
Joe: Got some great lines. And that’s that final scene. Yeah. He’s perfect. He is just, every scene he’s in, I. And I wanted like, four more scenes with him somehow. Yeah, yeah, I would have been so happy with that.
Greg: But yeah, I wonder why, I don’t know, they could only afford him for so many days, maybe. Yeah. Great CGI, close call of a flaming tire flying towards Sean William Scott in that scene. Yeah, just needless CGI. Close call. Perfect for the shots. You’re not a real movie in the arts until there are CGI close calls like that.
Joe: Yeah, exactly.
Greg: Joe, what do you think the tomato rating is on Rotten Tomatoes for this movie?
Joe: I gotta go with my gut. This is a perfect 70 for me.
Greg: It absolutely is. Right on them a diet 70%. Yeah.
Joe: Awesome. So our film.
Greg: And it feels like a 70, I’ll be honest as I watch it. Yeah. They’ve renamed the audience score. By the way. It’s now the popcorn meter taking the people out of it. I’m sorry. I just creates this now. Yeah. What do you think the popcorn meter audience score is on this movie?
Joe: That’s got to be higher. I mean, it should be 70, but as probably like, I would give this like an 85, 86 an hour.
Greg: That’s that’s how I feel about this movie. But it’s a 66. Yeah. It feels I don’t know for low. Yeah. To me.
Joe: Yeah. Should be 70.
Greg: Anyways let me tell you what some of the critics said about this movie Common Sense Media in 2010. So way after the fact says mildly entertaining action movie with a rock.
Joe: You weren’t there in 2003. I know, I know.
Greg: I wish I could write reviews like that’s that’s a job. You could just write that. Yeah. Let’s see. The Seattle Times, our hometown, said. While you won’t exactly walk out humming the plot, the rundown should go down quite decently with popcorn. Yeah, perfect. San Francisco Chronicle a witty, fast paced action movie. Yeah. Seems fair actually. They say action film.
Greg: And it’s not a film. It’s a movie. Let’s be honest, Detroit News a surefire audience pleaser that makes up for its dearth of ideas and originality with spunk, a self-effacing smirk and gobs of humor. Oh, I’ll take.
Joe: It, that’s all. Maybe a little generous, but you know.
Greg: Detroit Free Press, The Rundown understands how to take itself seriously and have fun and gives respect to an audience that usually doesn’t deserve any. Yeah, just guns emblazoned for the Detroit Free Press. Anyways, this movie was very well-reviewed. It cost $85 million to make, so it needs to make double that to break even. And it grossed 80 million worldwide.
Joe: Really?
Greg: Yeah. So this movie did not do well. And his next movie, Walking Tall, which is a movie, will definitely be getting to kind of a similar scenario. They spent like 45 and it made like 35 or something like that. So this movie is remembered quite well though, so.
Joe: That has made up for it over time. Was streaming and all of that. I feel like, yeah, if I, we all definitely get to walking tall, but I would watch this movie 100 times out of 100 if I had to choose it over Walking Tall.
Greg: Yeah. Me too.
Joe: It’s fine. It is what it is, but absolutely.
Greg: All right, Joe. Well, should we get to drinking games?
Joe: Let’s do it. I have a bunch of drinking games, but let’s go through our stock. One thing again. For anyone playing along at home to be coffee can be water, soda, chunk, all whatever you want. I did this with my son, who’s 14 and he was drinking water and really enjoyed the drinking games. And so I’ve amended the first one.
Joe: So we have silent helicopter or low flying helicopter. I gave this one low flying plane. No helicopter. Oh, sure, sure. Flying plane. Yeah. You can take a drink.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: I do not have a push in and enhance. Although you maybe could make a case for one because I have lots of cameras. But there wasn’t the classic kind of. Yeah, Finn and Hannah.
Greg: Leave it up. But while it could be if you see someone kind of close up and and pixelated on Christopher Watkins cameras, yeah, they could be. They’re thirsty. Sure. Yeah.
Joe: I have, So when two people share a slow motion look in the middle of chaos, I gave this one because right before the rock picks up a gun, they’re, like, trapped by gunfire.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: Shadow of the score coming. That’s a classic to me. They weren’t looking at each other, but, yeah, it could have been. And it would have been perfect. Yeah. You can. You can drink there.
Greg: Sure.
Joe: No explosion was silent. Suffering and ringing in the ears. Unfortunately. That’s a bummer. Opening credits scene where the title locks in with the sound. Yes. They get.
Greg: Some. Really? Yeah, yeah.
Joe: No. Flashback to dialog two minutes ago. One from their CGI close calls.
Greg: Oh.
Joe: So many.
Greg: Absolutely.
Joe: So many.
Greg: And then the shafts, the mine shafts where they’re getting the God. Oh, yeah. In the firefight at the end.
Joe: Yeah. So a lot of it great bad shots are everywhere.
Greg: Oh my gosh. Everywhere.
Joe: No. Inextricably wet streets.
Greg: Or.
Joe: Give us the room or Interpol. So those are our stock drinking games, right? Yep. But I will toss it to you, Greg. Swine heart to give us your first drinking game.
Greg: Any time the Rock says. And this is the thing that happened throughout the movie, where he gives option and option B of how a situation can go down anytime. He says option.
Joe: A, O option I o. So you have just all right. Just haven’t I also had that one. So every time the rocks at option A or B and okay.
Greg: Me okay.
Joe: Yeah. What’s what’s another one you have.
Greg: Well my next one was anytime he says option.
Joe: Perfect. My first one is every time Rosario Dawson’s accent slips a little bit.
Greg: She didn’t need the accent, right?
Joe: No, she didn’t need it. They totally could have totally been fine.
Greg: Yeah. So any time it’s mentioned that the Rock doesn’t like guns.
Joe: Yeah, I have that one as well. I have. Every time you think Guy Ritchie is directing this movie, take a drink.
Greg: Amazing. I’m just going to add any time you think Michael Bay is right in this movie.
Joe: Tony Scott, throw it in there.
Greg: Sure. Yeah.
Joe: This is. Oh, happens only once in the movie. So you just finish whatever drink you have, okay? Every time Christopher Walken describes the tooth fairy, you take a drink.
Clip: There are two men in that jungle who are trying to steal from me. I feel like a little boy who’s lost his first tooth, put it under his pillow waiting for the tooth fairy to come. Only two evil burglars have crept in my window and snatched it before she could get here again. A fatal dose. Second, do you understand the concept of the tooth fairy explained?
Clip: I follow those dentures. He joins us behind the wheel. Say purge undead. Check. Point of departure. Oh, no. Father, a father. Wait. Drunk. She takes the goddamn thing. Gives you a quarter. They got my tooth. I want it back.
Joe: That scene is so excellent.
Greg: It’s ridiculous. That’s so ridiculous. Any time Sean William Scott reminds you of Harrison Ford with, like, a smirk or a mannerism, I promise you, they’re in there.
Joe: Awesome. That’s so good. I have every time. It looks like they stole second unit shots from Jurassic Park. Make a drink.
Greg: There was a story where Peter Berg and his location scout went to Brazil and they were robbed. And so they decided to shoot in Hawaii. And so that’s why it looks like Jurassic Park. Yeah. All right. Any time the Rocks restaurant is mentioned. Oh that’s awesome. Yeah.
Joe: I have every time there’s a whip. Take a drink.
Greg: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Henchmen with a whip. Yeah. Any time thunder and lightning come up. Which is like a Sean William Scott, like. Yeah. That’s the names for his fists. Or feet or feet. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Which apparently he made up. It was just like an inside joke. But it was so entertaining that they kept it in the film.
Joe: That’s awesome. I have every time the rock cocks a shotgun. Weirdly.
Joe: I feel like it doesn’t under his arm. He does it on other people at different times.
Greg: It’s so stupid. Yeah, and yet totally makes the movie for me. Yeah.
Greg: And they built to it. They don’t start with that now. Yeah. They didn’t pull a cliffhanger. Do you have any more?
Joe: I have a few more. Okay. I have every time the rock takes a part, a gun, take a drink.
Greg: I see, like. Yeah, that’s a good one.
Joe: Yeah. Takes it apart or unloads it or stuff like that. Yeah. And then I have a couple from Milo, my son. Every time they say.
Greg: Gatto I can drink. Great.
Joe: And then every time they mention childhood.
Greg: Myths like the tooth.
Joe: Fairy or Santa Claus, because there’s multiple moments in there. So those are. Yeah. My son’s addition to this.
Greg: Nice work. Milo. You’re hired. That’s amazing. That really rings like, kind of leftover from the 90s as well. That was all that was left from the 90s trying to milk those cherry thing. They could.
Joe: I have a couple on our trope lightning round.
Greg: Yeah. Let’s do it. You might be watching a great bad movie if these tropes are in it.
Joe: Yeah. So we have, color filters for third world countries. This one is dipped in sepia tones. You have an odd couple or unlikely partnership.
Greg: Perfect.
Joe: One last job. You have a charismatic bad guy. When Christopher Walken, you have an explosion on impact with a car crash. You have a conversation in the middle of chaos.
Greg: Yeah, a.
Joe: Couple different times. Or the rock is walking the action through mine. And then sort of I think Rosario Dawson breaks the mold a little bit on this, but no women except for love interest or the mother. She’s not really a love interest and I feel like she’s a better character, but those are my main ones. I don’t think I had any other ones.
Joe: Yeah, that was that was all of them.
Greg: All right, Joe, should we get to some important questions?
Joe: Let’s do it. I’m dying. I have a couple I’m really curious on on what album this is for you.
Greg: So. Yeah. Okay. Did this movie hold up then?
Joe: Yes, it held up then.
Greg: Doesn’t hold up now.
Joe: By a thread.
Greg: Yeah. Do you think the clock is ticking on this one?
Joe: It might be.
Greg: How far away? Away from the rundown. Not holding up anymore of.
Joe: Probably like 3 to 5 years.
Greg: You think so? Yeah, I was thinking ten. All right.
Joe: We’ll see what we’ll make a bet.
Greg: Depends on where you are. Yeah. In this world. Yeah. How hard do they sell the good guy in this movie?
Joe: Not too much. They kind of show it. They do a little bit more showing it than telling it.
Greg: Yeah. No. Yeah. And how hard do they sell the bad guy.
Joe: Similarly it’s not they don’t do a lot of they have like the classic like Christopher Walken’s face on the screen with like the, the right. This is the only one man can.
Greg: Yeah. Yeah.
Joe: These checks or whatever or whatever it was. It was from cliffhanger you know. Yeah.
Greg: So yeah. Well this is ten years later. Yes. I know, yeah. All right. Why is there romance in this movie? Beautiful.
Joe: There isn’t romance. It’s so good.
Greg: It’s just perfect for you. Okay. Does this movie deserve a sequel?
Joe: I think it does. Yeah. It’s surprising that there there hasn’t been one for this movie. I could totally see The rundown three, 4 or 5. Easy for this.
Greg: Absolutely. This is something that apparently the Rock and Peter Berg get asked all the time. I was watching an interview with Collider today that happened a couple of years ago with Peter Berg, and it was the fifth time that this interviewer had talked about the run down to with Peter Berg in an interview. Apparently they got very close.
Greg: A script was written and, it took place in Alaska with Jonah Hill and the Rock. The Rock had to go get Jonah Hill. Interesting. And they had a scene where, like, instead of a monkey attacking the Rock’s face, it was a walrus up in Alaska. And it didn’t get made because the Rock didn’t want to go to Alaska for a couple months.
Greg: And so they were trying to figure out what tropical place could he go to. So anyways, Peter Berg recently said he gives it a 5050 chance. It could happen, but we think it should have happened already. Yeah.
Joe: Oh yeah. Definitely should have happened already.
Greg: This does feel like the kind of movie that, cannot get that lightning in a bottle twice, though.
Joe: Yeah. Oh, yeah. The sequels are going to be.
Greg: Yeah, terrible. It’s an Under Siege two scenario. Yeah. But, you know, free ideas for the run down to maybe they should go in dark territory.
Joe: I think that’s a great idea.
Greg: Okay. Does this movie deserve a prequel? No, no, no. I’m out. Nope. Okay. My only pushback is I believe there was a prequel to this movie called young Rock already. And so I’m assuming that was the harsh path that the Rock is referring to when he talks about his dark days all about it. Okay, okay, but how can this movie be fixed?
Greg: AKA who should be in the remake?
Joe: All right, I have an answer and I’m dying to hear your answer on this as well. But here is my idea.
Greg: Okay, we put this.
Joe: In the Fast and Furious verse and this is low band boleros, part two for fast five.
Greg: Get out of here. This is the prequel going into fast five. Yeah.
Joe: They’re in Brazil already.
Greg: Wow.
Joe: I mean, there’s the rock is in it. Oh, there’s so much synergy here. This is needs to happen.
Greg: So this yeah. Sets the scene okay. Yeah okay. Does that mean it has Jason Momoa in it.
Joe: We’d have to figure out how to get him in there.
Greg: They retconned him into that right.
Joe: Yeah I we’ll figure that we’ll get him in there.
Greg: I mean, if he’s got Momoa, Momoa and the Rock, has that happen yet?
Joe: It will end fast.
Greg: 11 oh, that’s a good point. Yeah, totally. Well.
Joe: All right, how are you gonna fix this movie?
Greg: When I finished watching this movie, I just decided there should not be a remake of this movie because it’s just pure 2003 and we can’t go back. Yeah. All right, so unless you want to make a rundown that’s pure 2025 next year, you know, that somehow just encapsulates what we don’t even know that we’ll love about it. All right.
Greg: You know the man that year. So I copped out on that one. I don’t think it should be remade. It’s it’s your prequel answer. All right.
Greg: All right, Joe, our favorite question. What album is this?
Joe: Okay, so I took it as what album catapulted somebody to fame kind of as a solo career.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Not that I’m equating the Rock and this person, but this is Beyonce, a Dangerously in Love, her first solo album.
Greg: Wow.
Joe: After Destiny’s Child, there’s a little bit of conversation. Can she make it as a solo artist?
Greg: Right, right.
Joe: And then she comes out and it’s like, yes, she can. Same question for the Rock. Can he be a movie star? He’s just a wrestler.
Greg: Right? Well known.
Joe: Yeah. That launched Beyonce into what she is today. This movie launched the rock into what he is today. So that was my my answer. What album is this for you?
Greg: Okay, so I was looking for an album by someone who was a known quantity, but this album launched them into a new thing. So the Beastie Boys had licensed L like, the number one album that year was just a massive hit, but it was not a genuine album by them. They were joking around and making fun of people who were frat guys, but then they became the quintessential frat guys in real life, on stage with like, just getting entirely drunk and having big blown up things on their stage.
Greg: So they decided to kind of regroup and make Paul’s Boutique, which was still very much the Beastie Boys like. It’s definitely the same band, but it was like, we’re gonna try and learn our own instruments. We’re going to work with a different producer, we’re going to work with the Dust Brothers, and we going to try and begin a new trajectory to our career and Paul’s Boutique is one of the greatest records in history.
Greg: It didn’t do very well, though. It’s liked much more in retrospect than it was at the time. But then they were able to go on and do check your head and no communication and Hello Nasty and the five boroughs. And so I think Paul’s Boutique is the album that is the rundown of albums where they hit his stride and gave us an entirely new career for the Beastie Boys that we didn’t know we wanted, and they probably didn’t know that they had.
Greg: So Paul’s would take what song would you choose? It’s got to be crazy enough.
Joe: It’s crazy. A that’s my still my favorite Beyoncé song.
Greg: Yeah, okay, I’ll do Shake Your Rump. Okay. We do an album for every movie we review here and you can go to Spotify, listen to great bad movies, music.
Joe: I can subscribe. It helps our numbers.
Greg: Absolutely on Spotify, great bad movies music is a playlist. All right, Joe, at the end of the podcast, every episode we rate the movie. Is that a great bad movie? A good, bad movie. Okay, bad movie, bad bad movie, or worst case scenario, awful bad movie. How do you rate the rundown?
Joe: I have been torn. I think I’m a little less all in on this movie. I felt like I was almost at an okay, bad movie. This is a good, bad movie. Oh, okay. No it’s not. I can’t put it up on the great depending on my mood. And, you know, I could probably get there, but this is a good, bad movie.
Joe: There’s yeah solid and what it does.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: But I feel like there are other movies we’ve done that. I just, I, I can’t put it in that caliber movie, although it is, as you say, the perfect, quintessential 2003 movie.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: For that reason, it’s. Yeah, it’s a good band. What about you? Like, how do you rate this?
Greg: Well, I think you and I are in exactly the same spot. I am right on the line between good bad movie and great bad movie. And since you went with good bad movie, that means I need to go to the other side and go to great bad movie, just to to counterbalance that. But I think it’s the rapport that they have between them in their scenes.
Greg: I think it’s the way that they went the extra mile for 3 or 4 of the action sequences. The way it’s definitely alluding to my favorite movies, and I don’t mind that it’s doing it. It’s kind of like taking the best stuff from the past and bringing it into a new millennium. Or I guess, William, where some of the him for Will Smith.
Greg: So I’m gonna say great bad movie. Not the best great bad movie we’ve reviewed, but I’m not saying it’s a great bad movie. All right. Oh, wow. It okay, okay. All right. Well, Joe, we made it. Yeah, we did it.
Joe: Yeah. The conversation that needed to be had about the rundown. Quite frankly, I don’t know why anyone would ever need to talk about this movie again.
Greg: No, it’s the 21st anniversary of it. And we all know that’s the last anniversary that you talk about movies. Yeah, exactly. So we’re good. Oh, listen, this has been great, but, I’ve got to go add some sports graphics to my life to make it more palatable on cable.
Joe: That makes total sense. Yeah. I’ve got to go, cock a shotgun in the most inefficient manner possible. So.
Greg: Okay, that totally works for me because I need to go to our local city hall and protest for stricter beanbag gun safety laws.
Joe: Probably wise, I’m gonna go fall down a cliff for an exceptionally long time. That’s okay though. I’m going to land.
Greg: Again, so I’ll be fine.
Greg: Listen, it’s been great recording this episode with you, but, I should have asked, was there an option? Be? I don’t.
Joe: Think so. Oh, okay. No one ever chooses that or shouldn’t choose it. Anyway, I’m. I’m so confused right now about what the tooth fairy is, so Christopher Walken is coming over later to explain it to me.
Greg: Oh, okay. You know, that that actually works for me because I need to go. I had some Cannes Lobos before we started, and your face has been freaking me out this entire time. It’s fair.
Joe: Anyway, I’m late. I’ve got to go, play some bagpipes before a big shootout and make a very weird speech. As if I’m William Wallace.
Greg: So, yeah, only after you’ve spoken from the Bible for a little while, obviously. Okay, well, you know, I don’t think I’m gonna stick around for that. And actually, that works for me because I need to go. There are some monkeys in the trees out next to my house, and I do not like the look in their eye.
Joe: I wouldn’t either. Anyway, I’m off to find a precious artifact that is really important to an indigenous culture and put it in a museum. I really like the National Museum of England’s model, so I’m going with that.
Greg: You know, I might go with no, I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t go, you know, kind of looking at it, thunder and lightning are not getting along and I think it’s time to put them down for a nap.
Joe: Probably. Probably. Anyway, I’ve got to go do some construction. I’m going to go, take out some beams with my shoulder and then punch one out.
Greg: So it’s.
Joe: All good.
Greg: Does he jump across the street?
Joe: Jump across.
Greg: The street? That’s amazing. Yeah. All right, well, this has been great, but, I’ll see you soon.
Joe: See you soon.