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John-uary returns!!
This year we’re celebrating with the sequel that asks: ‘What if EVERYONE in New York City was secretly an assassin?’
Chapter 2 expands the Wickiverse in every direction—more gold coins, more secret rules, more secret rooms behind secret rooms, and a hotel staff that has seen everything and will comment on none of it. The Continental becomes less ‘luxury hotel’ and more ‘violent LinkedIn,’ and John Wick proves once again that the most dangerous man alive can also be the politest.
Joe and Greg discuss why this is Joe’s favorite John Wick movie, create approximately 47 drinking games, debate turtleneck-and-suit fashion choices (maybe we should consider a dickie?), and explain why this is the ultimate ‘how to make a sequel’ masterclass. They’re going Applebee’s after this, once they figure out how the gold coins work.
Note: This transcript has been auto-generated, so… You know… It’s not our fault.
Greg: Joe in the movie we watched this week. A man is drawn back into a world he’s desperately trying to get out of. Have you ever been dragged back into a world you were trying to get out of?
Joe: Kind of. I had an incident where I was kind of like a party that made me feel my age.
Greg:
Joe: I’m a part time professor at the University of Washington, and with the last class and the students really wanted me to come out for a drink with them, and I did, and I regretted it almost instantly. And it was one of those where I should’ve just come with them. The first round for everyone and then left. Yeah, but I stayed for like a half hour, and it was like it was clear that it was like they just wanted to, like, let loose and be done, and I was I wasn’t even really drinking and I and so I just felt.
Joe: I sat there for 20 minutes trying to think, how can I leave? I know it was a terrible mistake on my part. So.
Greg: Yeah. What did you end up doing? Fake phone call.
Joe: I just was like, okay, I got to go. I got to go home and see the family. Yeah, you all have fun type of thing and like, you know, gave people high fives and hugs and $5 each. Yeah, $5 each. But what about you there any any moments where you’re like, oh, I shouldn’t have done that.
Greg: I’ve gone back into a world and then immediately regretted it. It’s slightly different. But that world was Die hard and it was for Die Hard five, and I have regretted it ever since I did it. I think you played this entirely right by avoiding it. Yeah, a lot of people don’t even know that there was a Die Hard five and oh my gosh, I wish I lived in that world.
Greg: Yeah.
Greg: All right, let’s get to the show.
Joe: Let’s do it.
Greg: Accounts payable. How may I help you? I’d like to open an account. Name on the account. John Wick.
Greg: The contract has gone international. You have no idea what’s coming. Somebody please get this man a gun.
Clip: It’s down to the players. When the Lord God.
Greg: You stab the devil in the back to him. This isn’t vengeance. This is justice.
Greg: Oh, kill them all. Cause you.
Greg: The year is 2017, and writer Derek Kolstad and director Chad Stahelski on his own this time teamed up with Keanu Reeves to make John Wick Chapter two not Part two, chapter two. We are talking about Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Ruby Rose, Carmen the rapper, Lance Reddick, of course. Surprise! Laurence Fishburne is in this movie. John Leguizamo shows up for a second.
Greg: Bridget Moynahan is in a video on his phone again. There is so much we need to talk about right now, Joe, but the first thing I need to say is it is 2026. First month of the year in 2026 is obviously January. And the way that we celebrate January around here is by watching a John Wick movie. What makes John Wick Chapter two a great bad movie?
Joe: First of all, I have to say this is my favorite John Wick.
Greg: Movie coming out strong. Okay.
Joe: Of the four, yeah, and I know there’s a fifth one. They all do amazing things. I think the first one is great. It’s like no notes. But this does everything you want a sequel to do.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: It goes bigger and keeps the tone of the world, but then it just expands it. That is what I appreciate about this. Also, this one did better at the movie, I think box office wise, but they also had a lot of people that hadn’t seen the first one, and they.
Greg: Do.
Joe: An opening action scene, which is basically just them going, we don’t know how to put this action scene in the movie, so we’ll just kind of recap the first one. We’ll sell the good guy again. We’ll sell John Wick.
Greg: God bless him. Yep.
Joe: And we’ll have this amazing car chase in a warehouse action scene.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: If you took that out of the movie, it does not change the plot of the rest of the movie one bit.
Greg: But it sets it up perfectly.
Joe: It sets it up perfectly.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: And it is so awesome.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: The great that was actually released as a trailer, I think as like a long trailer before the movie came out.
Greg: Oh, wow. Just the intro.
Joe: Yeah, just the intro.
Greg: Okay.
Joe: And I don’t even know if I had seen the first John Wick when that came out, because I was a little late to John Wick the first time around. And then as soon as I saw that, I went and watched the first one and then could not wait for the second one to come out.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And so it has enough of a plot to get to the action sequences. The action sequences, as I said, are bigger and better to me than the first one.
Greg:
Joe: And it’s not as much of a surprise or you haven’t seen it. You know what to expect.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: But it just ups the ante on it and it’s so great. So I love this movie. What about you. What do you, what, what makes John Wick Chapter two a great movie or great bad movie for you?
Greg: It almost is a perfect sequel. I mean, it turns the corner from, hey, have you seen this movie? It’s like a fun little niche movie. Better than you think it’s going to be. We covered John Wick a year ago. Yeah, I don’t think we had no notes. I think we think we had some notes. Yeah, but I think anybody making a sequel should watch John Wick Chapter two.
Greg: Yeah, that’s my thesis of watching this movie last night. And today it does just the right amount of revisiting what you loved about the first one and is able to encapsulate the first one has its own story and come up with a new motivation for John Wick to do what he does. I mean, so many times it kind of ruins the first one to just rehash it.
Greg: Yeah, a lot of people have this problem with Die Hard two. How can the same thing happen the same guy twice?
Joe: Yeah, exactly.
Greg: The beginning of this movie is basically John Wick saying, I don’t want to do this again. Don’t make me do this. He says it over and over and over again, and he gets dragged back in because of a blood oath that he’s made. And we learn about the existence of a few things that kind of expand the world even more to set the scene.
Greg: It just does it so well that I was completely on board with it from the beginning. Yeah. And also like that opening scene where he’s going to get his car back. This is like minutes after the first one is ended. I guess. It’s unbelievable. There are so many things that happened in that opening scene where, like, I have never seen eight of these ten things in my life.
Greg: Yeah, like almost jarring, you know, like, oh my gosh, these stunts are more than I ever thought I could ever see in a movie. This is incredible.
Joe: Yeah, there’s a my favorite part of it. I may have to add this to the trope list of like when a door is ripped off of a car and used.
Greg: Oh yeah, yeah, you’re not a movie. Unless that’s happening. We’ve already decided that.
Joe: Yeah, it’s not one of our movies. Unless that happens and it doesn’t, like, takes out a bad guy and then has Keanu Reeves as I don’t know if it’s him or a stunt person, but like, the car is an hit and he is not out of the car.
Greg: Unbelievable.
Joe: And I had never seen that. Like you said, there are multiple things that happen just in that. But five ten minute opening. And I was like, I’ve never seen that ever in a movie before. What am I watching? I felt like the stunt coordinator team was like, how can we do a car chase in a warehouse where there is no room?
Joe: I’m like, yeah, okay, this is how. And it was perfect. It was perfect. And then you have them selling the good guys. So you have. And I’m blanking on his name. He’s a he’s an actor. You’ve seen in everything. He is the bad guy. Bad guy.
Greg: Yeah. It’s just in the intro. And he’s the brother of the bad guy from the first one.
Joe: Peter Stormare.
Greg: Classic. Stormare.
Joe: Yeah. Classic Stormare. And he’s basically doing the exact same thing that his the other guy does. And I loved it just as much.
Greg: 100%, because these movies are the gold standard of selling the good guy. I think we need to hear the full scene of him selling the good guy.
Joe: Agreed.
Greg: So we’re giving everything up for car.
Clip: It’s not just the car, it is John Wick scum cinematic boom.
Clip: So why don’t we just give it back? He killed my nephew. My brother. How does he know my man. Over his car. And a puppy. He’s cool.
Clip: You. You think you will stop now? You.
Clip: Say he’s going, man, why don’t we just eliminate him?
Clip: John Wick is a man who focus.
Clip: You know. Oh, yeah. Just like all the.
Clip: Shia that will.
Clip: Come up to us. I.
Clip: Guess he.
Clip: Was killed. Three men in the bar. We cancel. I know, I’ve heard the story, sir.
Greg: Thank you. Spencer. Who that can do that?
Clip: Like, can I? Sure. You that the stories you hear about this man, if nothing else.
Clip: Has been watered down.
Greg: I mean, could they have sold him any better than the first movie? The answer is yes. Yeah, we could sell them better at the beginning. By Peter Stormare and the second. And just in case we haven’t done it well enough, we’re going to say all of the things you’ve heard are watered down. It just pitch perfect. Yeah. Just incredible.
Joe: Yeah. And if you haven’t seen the movie as he’s speaking, you’re seeing John Wick break into the the warehouse and kill henchmen.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: While this is happening, it is a perfect this is a perfect scene.
Greg: Although I will say the first time I saw this and I was of like, oh, it’s his brother. Oh, no, this is true rehash territory that we’re walking into here. This is all trouble. And then the action is so good. You’re like, well, whatever the plot is, this is this is pretty amazing. And then we get away from it.
Joe: The first scene, I was like a free credit scene, almost like a James Bond movie. Yeah, it’s like a short film. Yeah. Again has almost no bearing on the rest of the film. We don’t see Peter Stormare like, basically like they’re closing that chapter and now we’re moving on to chapter two.
Greg: Right.
Joe: So I had the thought that like the first time I watched it, I was like, are they going to flashback? And this is like the final battle, and then we’re going to go back and watch kind of the movie to that point again. Like, that was my first thought, oh my God, okay. But it isn’t. It’s just like a total non-sequitur within the movie.
Joe: And it’s perfect.
Greg: Yeah. The very first thing we see in this movie is the side of a building, and it’s playing like a Buster Keaton movie is being projected to it. No explanation for it. Just we’re here to celebrate. Studs. That’s what we’re doing. Yeah. And then the next thing you know, a car is T-boned by a motorcycle, and you have never seen a motorcycle crash into a car like this.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: There were a couple crashes in this movie that they just put a dummy on the thing and crashed it, and then kind of, I think they might have, like, animated it with digital effects and post.
Joe: Right.
Greg: To make it look like it was a real person on the ground. But there are a couple stunts in this movie where it’s really just a dummy, like duct taped to something.
Joe: That’s so great.
Greg: Yeah, and so there’s all kinds of trickery like that going on, and I am just absolutely here for it. It’s incredible. But I was really struck by this, this first tee boating that happens because the guy in the car gets out. We never see his face, but we know it’s John Wick because he has classy shoes on. You and I need to go deep on dress shoes in this episode.
Joe: Series.
Greg: Because if John Wick is going deep, I’m dressed you as you and I have to go as well. And it walks over to this motorcyclist and grabs like a gold card out of his motorcycle jacket. And it was like, oh, there’s a different kind of gold thing in this one. It was like gold coins in the last one.
Greg: What’s this gold thing? And I mean, from the very beginning, it’s like there’s more to learn about this world. There’s more currencies, there’s more whatever. Turns out, this thing is just what opens the door to get into the bad guys layer to get this car back.
Joe: Right.
Greg: But it immediately makes you go, oh, we’re we’re growing this world to absurd levels that I yes, cannot wait to talk about.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: It’s perfect. And then, yeah, he gets back to his house and then there’s a knock on the door.
Greg: Of course. Yeah. Of course.
Joe: And it is. Ricardo’s the master CEO. He’s a face the like as vaguely familiar to me. And I don’t know if it’s because I’ve seen this movie probably 5 to 7 times.
Greg:
Joe: Or it’s like he’s got henchmen face to him.
Greg: He hasn’t been in much stuff that we’ve seen. I will say that a couple of years after this, he was in a movie called non Sono un assassin. Oh, and the cover art of that looked very John Wick in, but non sono un assassin. That was probably my favorite name for an entire movie that I’ve read in 2026 so far.
Greg: We might have peaked earlier with Italian movie titles. Yeah, perhaps.
Joe: I really want you to know, like for American audiences, what this is about.
Greg: Yeah, but he is pretty good as the bad guy in this movie.
Joe: Yeah, I always like a bad guy. That’s kind of understated. And he’s not, like, bombastic or, you know, larger than life. He’s pretty much just like your back in the game. Yeah, we helped you get out, right. And you owe me. So you’re going to help me and John try to say no over and over again. And then they blow up his house.
Greg: Yep.
Joe: And he talks to Ian McShane and says, okay, I got I got to do it.
Greg: These are the rules.
Joe: Yeah, these are the rules. And so he’s back in. He’s got to go kill this guy’s sister to get the seat at the high table with the 12 other people.
Greg: Right.
Joe: We have no idea who they are, but I’m sure chapter five will have something about.
Joe: High table.
Greg: We learned that the continental and kind of all the people that are surrounded around the continental, it’s an international organization. We learned that there’s a high table. That’s something we didn’t know. And we learn about the marker. And the marker is the thing that kind of drags him back in for chapter two. The amazing thing that they’ve done in this movie is, is they preserve part one, and we know that he’s a human being because he cared for his dog.
Greg: We know that he’s he’s back on his heels and he’s sad. He is knocked down because his wife has passed away and that gets to stay the heart of this thing. And man, if they had ruined that, it wouldn’t have seen past part two, I don’t think.
Joe: Yeah. And then I don’t know how to explain it, but I usually root for bad guys in movies like this, you know, just because I find them more interesting. Yeah. And every action scene, I’m just like, kill them all, John.
Greg: I’m all. I’m just.
Joe: Hundred percent in on Keanu Reeves as John Wick.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: You know, say what you will about you know, I everyone knows I’m in the tank for Keanu Reeves. Yeah. And basically every movie and no chain for me in this one. He is he is perfect in this role. And he really is easy to root for, even when all the odds are stacked against him or, you know, he’s got to go.
Joe: There’s a lot of in this world, like I thought, we are friends and he’s about to kill whoever that is. And he’s like, I think we are, too. It’s like, because when he actually gets to kill the sister, she’s like, you know, I considered us friends, and he’s like, I still do. Yeah. Even though he’s got two.
Greg: Right.
Joe: To kill her because he’s got no choice in a sense. And so that happens a lot in this world of just like, well, these are the rules we have to play by. And there’s something kind of weirdly comforting about that.
Greg: Total.
Joe: Yeah, they do like each other. And even in the, in the fourth one, they the guy that’s chasing him. But there’s actually going to be a, another movie about him. They’re friends, but they just know that this is the, the, the price you pay for living in this world, essentially.
Greg: Right? Yes. And she’s like, oh, okay. Well, if there was a marker, then, you know, you have to. Yeah.
Joe: The other thing that I always appreciate about these movies and this one, there’s no exception. So like when he gets to her and she actually kills herself first or slits her wrists and then he shoots her still. But you leave nothing to chance. Yeah. And there’s a brutal ness to the world that just permeates everything.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And you see that he is that, you know, everything that they say about him is watered down as you know, literally, she’s dying in the bathtub and he still shoots her. And then he meets common and like, work working John. And he is perfect in that. It’s like, unfortunately. And then they have probably my favorite fight scenes within like the, like one on one fight scenes within this.
Greg: Yeah. Oh yeah.
Joe: Again things I’ve never seen some stuff I have, but it’s so fun. They just do they and to me this is again the joy you see of the people behind the scenes who are stunt directors. Like just saying, what can we do, what haven’t we seen, what have we always wanted to do? That’s what it feels like in a lot of the.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: The action scenes like, well, what have you always wanted to do that a director said no to we’re going to do that in these movies.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: You know, and that’s to me the opening scene, a great scene with common. And they’re chasing each other through, subway.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And like shooting at each other, but not nobody else knows what’s happening around them.
Greg: Secret silencer. Gunfight is the one thing I took from this movie that will. I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Inside my heart. It is so funny and so amazing. Also maddening that these two guys, who are just the greatest killers on the planet, cannot seem to hit each other.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Yeah, it’s so ridiculous yet. Oh my gosh, they had to do it. It’s so great.
Joe: It’s. Yeah, great. It’s so fun.
Greg: Yeah. And what I learned from this movie is probably everybody else. There is an assassin as well. If I’m understanding the John Wick world. Right. According to the chapter two, everyone on the planet is a secret assassin. Yeah.
Joe: Pretty much.
Greg: You mentioned you were in the tank for Keanu Reeves, but we should just start referring to him as Golden Helicopter Award winning actor Keanu Reeves, obviously.
Joe: Yeah, yeah, obviously.
Greg: Keanu Reeves did something really hilarious in interviews about this movie. He said, John Wick is a nice guy. He doesn’t want to kill anybody. He just wants his car back. But if you’re going to get in his way, things might happen. Yeah. And it’s really interesting how true to that. They are. Throughout this movie. He’s really only going after people that are going after him.
Greg: Yeah, he’s leaving everybody else alone.
Joe: Yeah, that’s really true. And it’s interesting because he kills so many.
Greg: People in that’s. Well, let me ask you a question. How many people does John Wick kill him?
Joe: This movie I think I actually read this statistic somewhere, but it’s somewhere around 200.
Greg: It’s 116 in this movie.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: And there’s a special feature that shows all of them and count them. Beautiful. Yeah. 116 opening scene. I just need to say they shut down Time Square for that awesome John Wick chapter two. Somehow they shut down Time Square for that movie for a while. And so that that accident happens right in front of an H&M.
Greg: It’s just right there. Which was I don’t know why I was distracted by an H&M being right behind that car accident, but something that I noticed after that, throughout the entire movie is you can see pretty far in many of the shots of this movie compared to the first one. Literally, the scope of the movie visually is bigger than the first one, and it’s not blurry.
Greg: It’s not out of focus when we’re in Rome and he’s doing crazy stuff. You can see so much happening in the background, people running around, concert happening, whatever. All the rooms they’re in are huge. This movie is definitely bigger in scope and feel.
Joe: Yeah, and the third one and the fourth one, they get more green screen heavy and I feel like that’s to their detriment. I like the fact that they’re in the catacombs with that crazy gunfight that happens. Yeah, and you get to see him in Rome and in New York. Yeah. You know, without the kind of crackle around the edges of a green screen.
Joe: Yeah. Which sometimes gets to me, I. Oh, I’m a sucker for real explosions in a true sense.
Greg: So this one kind of wins on that level as well. Yeah. Gotcha. All of these movies have a crazy amount of stunt guys with different looks going after John Wick. Yeah. And so one of my main questions for you tonight is what bad guy. Look, it’s just Guy Tucker going for in a John Wick movie. Are you going like pony tail?
Greg: Are you doing, like, short up top with an enormous mustache? There’s a guy in this movie that has, like, brown hair with a big black beard. What’s a Josh guy Tucker doing as a as a bad guy?
Joe: I think I’m going my classic 2015 man bun bad guy.
Greg: Yes, totally.
Joe: That’s my bad guy.
Greg: Sweater with the color. Yeah.
Joe: Exactly. Everyone will be really happy to see me get killed at that, you know?
Greg: So, yeah. Your name in the credits is bookish. Yeah.
Greg: I love it.
Joe: Exactly.
Greg: I think I’m going for four different looks so I can be in four different fights. Okay, perfect. I start with crazy long hair, like, covering up my face, an enormous beard, and then obviously in the next one, I’m entirely shaved head with enormous beard. And then, I think because some guys often they’re trying to look distinctive, but that also ends up also being a bit douchey, I think I shave the mustache and keep the beard and the bald head for the for the third scene.
Greg: And then in the fourth one, I’m obviously, wearing like, riot gear or something. So you can’t see my face at all because that’s always a move. They do as well.
Joe: Yeah. It’s probably 12 stunt men total in this entire.
Greg: And it’s just.
Joe: Rotating them through wardrobe.
Greg: Totally, totally. There are so many hilarious moments where it’s clearly not Keanu Reeves doing something. They are not shying away from just old school Hollywood had the stunt guy do it and then cut to a different shot. And it’s Keanu Reeves. But they are very generous with the amount of screen time the stunt people get. When it’s you’re pretty sure it isn’t Keanu Reeves, but who cares?
Greg: Yeah, like there’s a moment where suddenly John Wick just decides to, like, somersault down a full flight of stairs and then shoot people behind him, and then any somersaults, like on one shoulder down this stairwell somehow, it’s like, oh, that was a good move. Oh, that’s not Keanu Reeves. Okay, cool. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah. And it’s somehow the longest staircase that you’ve ever seen someone fall down where they keep their momentum going. There are some great moments like that where it’s like, okay, I remember it’s in that fight with common, and they’re, like, tumbling together, and then someone’s thrown down like, yeah, no, they would make it all the way down, like, 100 yard staircase like that.
Joe: But in this movie, I’m like, I’m in.
Greg: Are you confusing this with for when they go down the really, really long staircase?
Joe: No, no. Okay. Right before they get to the continental and right in Italy.
Greg: Yeah. It was an adorable staircase compared to for.
Joe: Yeah. Compared to, for like this one is a third as long as the one that’s in for. And this one is ridiculously long too.
Greg: I loved it so much. I loved it so much. Yeah, if there was like, nest camera, like security camera on me while I was watching John Wick two, it’s mostly just me smiling and giggling.
Joe: I’m 100%.
Greg: And I feel like it’s kind of a universal. If I’m doing that for this kind of violent movie, I feel like that’s a universal response to this movie. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah, there’s something about the violence in these movies that just and this just probably makes as terrible people armed, just like, kill them all. Kill them all John. And I, I am giddy when they, the action scenes start that scene when they cause they’re really like you have that opening scene and you have a pretty long break between action scenes that builds up to the room scene.
Joe: Sure.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And then basically from the Rome scene through the end of the movie, it’s it’s like an hour and 15 minutes. Most of that is just protracted action sequences happening. And it’s great. And again, I’m just kill them all. Yeah. So every single one of them, you know, and then he’s double crossed. So he kills the sister in Rome.
Joe: And then Ruby Rose is the main hench woman for the brother.
Greg:
Joe: And then because he killed her, his sister, now he’s going to get rid of the loose ends. And so now he’s got to fight all of them. That was a nice little twist. I remember the first time I watched it I was like shocked as like oh how can you do this to John Wick?
Greg: He’s just doing what he’s supposed to do. And then they’re going after him. Yeah.
Joe: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. They put a bounty on his head after he kills his sister because he has no choice but to do it. Seems so unfair.
Greg: How much was that bounty?
Joe: $7 million.
Greg: Did we see that kind of contract stuff go into effect in the first John Wick, or is this the first time we see the old school answering the phone switchboard? People who are super tattooed, but they look like they’re from the 40s or 50s.
Joe: Then the first one, they do put a bounty on John Wick.
Greg: Okay, okay.
Joe: So we do see that. We see more of it. And this one and then and subsequent movies.
Greg: Yeah. By the way, when they stamp the contracts, it is the loudest stamp in history.
Joe: Amplified by a cinematic boom. Yeah.
Greg: I don’t know if you’re aware of how loud the stamps are in the John Wick universe. Check this out.
Greg: Amazing. No shortage of cinematic booms being placed everywhere in this movie. And yeah. Oh my gosh, come on. That’s amazing.
Joe: Yeah. How do you emphasize something in a John Wick movie with a cinematic boom?
Greg: Absolutely.
Joe: That’s how it’s done.
Greg: So 14 minutes in, we get credits. We’ve had the most amazing like John Wick doesn’t get hit by one car in the garage, gets hit by like 4 or 5 cars in the garage. Yeah. It’s amazing. But when the car finally gets out, it like flies out sideways. In the coolest shot that’s ever happened in cinematic history.
Joe: Yeah. And as weird as you’re thinking about that how inexplicably weather the streets at this moment.
Greg: Oh my gosh. I have zero explanations for the witness of those streets in New York. Yeah we get credits rolling. And then Leguizamo shows up at his house to look at his car. Just John Leguizamo working for upwards of 6.5 hours on his stomach movie and just making it. He’s on the short list of people I want to drop into every movie we’ve got.
Greg: David Harbor Leguizamo is on the list at a third person on this list. Who is somebody that you want to drop into every movie you watch? Sam Rockwell oh, 100%. Yeah.
Joe: I could watch a movie where Sam Rockwell plays every character.
Greg: Like a remake of Meet the Plumps. Is that what is going on with Eddie Murphy? Yeah. Okay, I’ve got a couple minutes for Melissa McCarthy and every movie.
Joe: Oh, yeah? Yeah.
Greg: Zero script. Just let her cook.
Joe: One of my favorite things of this is a sidebar on Melissa McCarthy is watching bloopers of her movies.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: There’s a scene I think it’s in. This is 40. Yeah. Where she is laying into the principal and into the into Paul Rudd.
Greg:
Joe: And saying the most disgusting things to them and everybody. But her is breaking around.
Greg: And.
Joe: She’s.
Greg: Like.
Joe: I want to set you on fire.
Greg: But I’m like just the.
Joe: The most awful thing.
Greg: And.
Joe: It’s and it goes on for like three minutes of her just berating them.
Greg: I love it.
Joe: And I don’t even know how much of that could be used in the movie, because they’re all just laughing so hard at her. It’s so perfect. She is. Yeah, she is a treasure. I would love for her to join the John Wick verse and drop in for a second.
Greg: I mean, anyone from the Groundlings is invited. Before you even said that, I was going to say Jane Lynch. I’ve got more than five minutes for Jane Lynch. And every single piece of content that I watch, I could watch a 32nd YouTube clip, and there could be a five minute Jane Lynch improvised commercial, and I would be entirely okay with that.
Greg: Advertisers need to get on board with change. Seriously. So anyways, Leguizamo shows up, he makes some jokes about the car, and he’s like, yeah, I can fix it. And that’s about it. Yeah, Jimmy shows up the police officer a little rushed, not as slow as the first one. Yeah, I could have used that to be about half as fast, but they’d be long gaps before they say.
Greg: You working again, John? Yeah.
Joe: Spoiler alert to a potential drinking game that I may have on my list. He’s asked if he’s working again.
Greg: Can we talk about coins for a second? What does a coin buy you and John Wick two. It buys you two cocktails.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: It buys you a hotel room for as long as you need apparently.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: So it buys you $13 of alcohol or $1,800 in hotel fees. Yeah. What else does it buy you in the John? Make a verse, a coin.
Joe: It cleans up one body, apparently.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: From the first one.
Greg: Sure.
Joe: How the currency exchange works is, is very unclear, because there are moments where they show that he has a lot of coins. Yeah, but if the exchange rate on them is low in some way, he could just blow through your coin and one night, and then you’re.
Greg: Like, if he had bought a second round for common. Yeah. Those drinks cost, what, $50,000 each. Yeah.
Joe: Something like that.
Greg: It gets you all kinds of guns if you go to the Somalia Peter Serafinowicz. Is that his name?
Joe: I think so that’s a great scene.
Greg: The coin economy, that’s happening in this movie. Yeah. Is delightfully vague and I love it. I get a little distracted by how much is a coin actually worth. Yeah. In this world had similar.
Joe: Thoughts in my head because it, it’s very zen like you will get a coin, someone will get a coin. Then the first one for doing some babysitting of somebody and then. Right. It might need, like a Treasury secretary to come in and standardize things a little bit for this, for this world. So like a.
Greg: Purchasing power index, like a PPI on this one. Yeah.
Joe: The finance people.
Greg: Involved. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really love that. Coins are rarely handed to somebody. They are put down and then slid across the surface with the finger. Yeah. That’s glorious. That’s how I want to pay every bill for the rest of my life.
Joe: With does get gold coins.
Greg: Yes, but don’t you think that part of the secret of this movie and of this franchise is they’re daring you to think something through, and it’s like this coin could pay for anything, and that’s fun. And just let it be that. And yeah, think about this. Never, you know.
Joe: Yeah, exactly.
Greg: It’s such a virtue signal to just enjoy yourself.
Joe: I 100% agree. The other one of my other favorite things in this is they do a lot of when they meet each other, they greet each other, not like, hey, how’s it going? It’s John.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Cassian.
Greg:
Joe: Saying someone’s name as the greeting. Yeah. And you see someone, right? And they all, like, have perfect memories of their names. Yeah. No one’s like, who’s that guy? It’s like Cassian long history.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: It’s awesome. I love all of that. And Winston obviously calls John Jonathan Jonathan Laureano. Yeah.
Greg: How much he love Ian McShane.
Joe: He is clearly having so much fun. Yeah. He’s on set for, what, three days if that.
Greg: If you want me again it’s going to have to be on location in Central Park at The Fan. Yeah, yeah.
Joe: He is so perfectly cast in this and and clearly enjoying himself. Lance Reddick again is perfect in his role as kind of the concierge of the hotel. Incredible for the continental. Yeah. And for him, it’s Mr. Wick, you know, never the first name, right?
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Those little notes that permeate the movie and build the character because you don’t really have a lot of character development. This is a showcase for action. And watching John Wick kill everyone. So those are the moments that, like, are the are the character development more than anything else?
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: The other thing is they have just amazing actors around Keanu Reeves. Yeah, they get to be big. You know, Laurence Fishburne comes in and just shoes the scenery and every moment that he’s on screen.
Greg: It was almost too much casting with Laurence. It was so distracting for me that he was in this movie because it’s just too great that they’re working together again. And I mean, John Wick isn’t so far from neo. No Bowery King. Is that his name in this movie. Yeah I mean he’s definitely a looser. Morpheus. Yeah.
Greg: But still shades of Morpheus. Yeah I find it distracting.
Joe: It’s impossible to see them on screen together and not think of The Matrix.
Greg: It’s borderline too much. It takes me out of the movie.
Joe: I can do that. I still love them together so much that I was able to forgive it.
Greg: Yeah. Oh, sure.
Joe: But yeah, it does. It’s a moment where you’re like, okay, he’s in it instead of like, oh, this is the character and this is where we are in the movie, because it’s a kind of a pivotal moment in the movie when he comes in. Yeah. Nurses him back to health a little bit.
Greg: We find out that all homeless people in New York are part of an underground assassin world working for the Bowery King. Also, assassins.
Joe: Once again proving your point that everyone in New York apparently.
Greg: Is.
Joe: An assassin.
Greg: Here’s here’s my breakdown of of what the assassin situation is in New York. In a John Wick movie, 60% of the people are assassins. Yeah. Okay. 30% of the people are people trying to not look like assassins, but also are assassins.
Greg: And the remaining 10% are people who have accidentally stumbled into the John Wick averse and are just there. They’re just taking the subway. Yeah. And apparently John Wick and Common are like in a knife fight to the death. And the thing that I love about this movie so, so, so much is whenever there’s a fight, it’s always around people.
Greg: It seems like there’s always a ton of, like, just random people. The well, we should just refer to them as the 10%. Yeah, the 10% are out there. They’re like, what is happening in my subway car right now? But they’re also just sitting there throughout the entire fight. Yeah, nobody goes to a different car.
Joe: And no one tries to help or intervene.
Greg: One person does switch seats, but I could not understand why. Yeah, there is an opportunity for them to go to different train cars if they want to. They choose not to. They are just sitting there and when there’s like a huge crowd, I mean, the planet just seems to be cool with John Wick shooting people. Yeah. This is just Tuesday for that.
Joe: Exactly. It’s so great.
Greg: So we got 60, we got 30% and then we’ve got this 10%. That’s just like what did I just walk into. Yeah I was just at the fountain.
Joe: I know don’t make eye contact I know I think we’ll be okay.
Greg: I was just at like a kind of weird raving party in Rome. Yeah. For the coronation, though, it was coronation.
Joe: Yeah. And the singer. So, Sandra nostalgia, one of my favorite artists that I really discovered from this movie.
Greg: Oh, amazing. And she is just singing lyrics on top of the John Wick theme. Did I hear that right?
Joe: Yeah. Written for the movie by Tyler Bates.
Greg: Okay, okay.
Joe: But she also has a solo career.
Greg: So tell me what she have to add. Has she been through Seattle? Have you seen her?
Joe: I have not seen her. There is rumor she’s got a couple albums out and then she’s been releasing some songs over the last year.
Greg: Okay.
Joe: I’m hoping for a new album coming in the tour, so yes, I want her if she comes.
Greg: Okay, big shout out. That’s amazing. Yeah.
Joe: You want to come on the podcast?
Greg: Welcome to.
Joe: Sean. Over.
Greg: Yeah. Yeah, totally.
Joe: She was in the first one. And this one has a bigger part in this one.
Greg: She was in the first one.
Joe: There’s another scene where she’s like a singer and she’s got a song on the first one as well.
Greg: Oh, I remember that. Yeah. This that was a year ago. It’s been a long time since the last January, I know. Okay, I have two very important questions for you. I’m going to start with the light one and then we can go into the heavy one okay.
Joe: Oh okay I got a warm up. Ease into it.
Greg: A lot of the beginning of this movie has John Wick just in a kind of long sleeve, quarter button shirt. How do you feel about that?
Joe: Not my favorite look for him because he likes to be so polished.
Greg:
Joe: But I know what they were trying to tell with the character. He’s a little disheveled. He’s trying to make you know it’s trying to show him that like this is the life he wants to lead.
Greg:
Joe: So it’s like he wants to be more relaxed less formal.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: So that’s the story they’re trying to tell with his his clothes.
Greg: Okay. He then goes to a tailor and gets his bulletproof suit. Yeah. Our guy puts on a turtleneck and a suit. This is where we’re getting starting to get a little bit deeper here into the water.
Joe: Yeah, I can tell.
Greg: Would you ever wear a turtleneck in a suit or have you ever worn a turtleneck suit?
Joe: I have not, and I am not a turtleneck fan.
Greg: Okay, okay.
Joe: I find them a little cheesy, so I’m not a fan of the look for him.
Greg: Okay. You have a regular shirt on. But you want to go for a more comfortable turtleneck. Look under that t shirt you have a dickey on. Where do you stand on that. Maybe you’re doing that in the suit.
Joe: That’s even.
Greg: Worse. Okay.
Joe: I just wear a turtleneck okay.
Greg: Okay. So John Wick and Joe Skywalker are on kind of different levels when it comes to the fashion.
Joe: I did appreciate, although I could never pull it off. But like a black on black on black, that’s a tough look to pull off, I think. But I mean, he’s obviously wearing like a $10,000 suit or some crazy, you know, it’s like a yeah, yeah, yeah. So it looks perfect on him.
Greg: Cost him one coin.
Joe: Yeah. One coin.
Greg: So I mean, you see, that’s a tough look, but you’re wearing it right now. Yeah. That’s true.
Joe: You know, I’m in Rome, so. Yeah.
Greg: When in Rome you got to.
Joe: Go kill the.
Greg: Pope. Yeah. You’re pulling Julius, the guy who runs the Continental in Rome. One question, John Wick. Are you here for the Pope? Yeah. No. Okay. We’re good. What do you mean? Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Me too. Oh, my gosh.
Joe: So great.
Greg: Okay, let me get a little bit deeper here with my questions. Okay. What is your history with the rapper common?
Joe: I have known about comments and like 1999, 2000.
Greg: Oh, so like like water for chocolate.
Joe: Like I’ve known about him and I’ve had friends. I’m not as much into his music.
Greg: As some.
Joe: Of my friends were back then, but I have known about common for a long time. Yeah. I would put him on that list of like, I’m always happy to see him in a movie when he pops 100%.
Greg: Yeah. So totally.
Joe: There was a lot of rumors after this movie that there was going to be a movie featuring his character. Oh, really? Never materialized for whatever reason, because he doesn’t die in this movie. Does one of my favorite things that these kind of action movies do where he is stabbed in the heart.
Greg:
Joe: And John Wick somehow knows that it is in his eye or not.
Greg: Right. Yeah.
Joe: So don’t move it. If you want to live basically.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: So he is that good of an assassin and he knows exactly where his blade is which I, you know, if he is the greatest assassin in the world.
Greg: Sure, sure.
Joe: Yeah. And in the context of the movie, I never question it. I just know noted as something that makes it awesome.
Greg: Yeah. As the camera kind of backs up as John Wick is walking away from common and leaves him on that subway train car coming kind of has like a knowing smile, like, you bastard.
Joe: You got me this time.
Greg: Yeah. I can’t dislike you, John Wick. The order to move was a good one. Yeah, yeah.
Joe: And then we find out with, The Bowery King or Laurence Fishburne. But John Wick has done something similar to him where he doesn’t kill him. You know, he could have if he had pulled the knife out of his neck by right. You know, again, showing that. Yeah, John Wick only kills you if he needs to.
Greg: He’s a nice guy, Joe. Yeah.
Joe: Deep down.
Greg: Except for the hundred and 16 people. Good dude. He’s a good dude. Pretty good. Yeah.
Joe: Thanks. Bourbon. Common. You know, Cassian drinks gin. That’s what we find out about them. It’s great.
Greg: Totally. We just have to call out Peter Serafinowicz, who is the, Somali. Yeah, he walks into this place and it’s just all wine. And then the camera pans and it’s all guns. Yeah. Peter Serafinowicz is one of those, like, magical characters in this movie that gets five laughs where there is half of one on the page. He is unbelievable.
Greg: He’s the voice of Darth Maul, you know that?
Joe: Oh, I did not know that. He is one of those people that I’m looking at. His IMDb.
Greg: Page. Yeah, he.
Joe: Has been in every thing ever. And he’s a face like, he’s like, he’s a that guy. Yeah, but he’s like the British, that guy. And he’s just in everything.
Greg: That has to mean he’s great to be around. Like you know who’d be a good hang while we’re working on this thing today. Let’s copy. Yeah I forgot to mention I love coming like water for chocolate was the first time I heard about him. The circus was incredible like early aughts. And then B was a really good album.
Greg: And then, forgetting the name of the one after that. But I listen that one a lot as well. And we saw him come through town with Pharrell Williams opening up. N.e.r.d opened up.
Joe: Crazy.
Greg: It was like one of the greatest shows of my life. It was so good. It’s like, well, this is my favorite person forever. And so when he showed up in this movie, I was like, okay, now we’re cooking with gas this time and just walks in. Unbelievable.
Joe: That’s way back in the day. N.e.r.d. I’m like, that’s when Pharrell Williams was like four bands at the same time. They were all kind of blowing up.
Greg: Yeah, so 100%. Yeah. What a weird thing to think. Now, that friend who’s just came to Seattle and played a show. Yeah, the party in Rome, dangerously close to that ridiculous rave scene from matrix two.
Joe: Agreed. And the, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning. Same rave.
Greg: We’ll get to matrix two. But that matrix two scene really did ruin things for me. I cannot see like a dance. I might go along with it. And collateral. Remember that movie collateral with Tom cruise? But otherwise, hard pass. I was kind of like, oh, matrix two vibes then it never gets super matrix to me. Yeah, it’s mostly just a concert, but it’s close enough that.
Joe: It’s on the.
Greg: Edge. Even the mention of it. I was just like, oh boy.
Joe: Cut to, the Golden Helicopter Awards next year of.
Greg: Worst.
Joe: Rave Scene.
Greg: The award goes to.
Greg: So John Wick is there killing Gianna. D’Antonio sneaks in through the back catacombs, leaps through the front door. Yeah.
Greg: What’s he doing there?
Joe: Yeah, I’m not sure you’re working, John.
Greg: Why is he walking out the front door? Yeah. It’s ridiculous.
Joe: I’m not sure. Why didn’t they have? I mean, I know that they’re like. He goes through one gate that’s locked, but seems like a pretty big security risk for, like, one of the most powerful people on the planet to just be able to, like, sneak in through catacombs that clearly are available for anyone for a coin. Sure.
Greg: So, yeah, I mean, that’s like $500,000.
Joe: Or 10 million. We don’t.
Greg: Know. The cobblestone in Rome. Absurdly wet. Incredible.
Joe: Any time there’s a night shot and a street, someone has had a garden hose out there.
Greg: All right. I want to jump ahead a little bit. John Wick. His contract has been cinematic. Boomed, stamped. Yeah. And now everybody on the planet, we’ve already discussed that 90% of New York is assassins. They all start attacking him at once. Yeah. Tell me what your favorite surprise assassin is. Is it sumo wrestler? Dude in a suit shoves him through the glass on the street.
Greg: A lot of people flying through glass in this movie. Yes. Is it, blood violin player that has, a violin that somehow turns into a weapon? Or does she pull her gun out of it? I don’t know what happens there. And then to, businessmen in, like, the train station, he kills them with a pencil knife.
Joe: Three people with a pencil, just to be sure.
Greg: Sure.
Joe: It’s very closely. A tie between sumo wrestler and violin.
Greg: Okay, I got to go sumo, because, he kicks him in the junk, and that’s hilarious. Yeah, yeah.
Joe: And he gets shot in the head and somehow doesn’t die and has to be shot again.
Greg: Keeps going. Yeah, yeah. It can’t be overstated that nobody in public seems to be concerned with what John Wick is doing in public. Yeah. It’s unbelievable. And John Wick is concerningly bloody in his face for like, the second half of this movie. And there’s a moment where, just like a regular person, this woman kind of looks at him as he’s walking by on the subway, and she does not do a double take.
Greg: Yeah. She just goes, oh, okay, super bloody John Wick on the train. Let me deal.
Joe: Now he’s one of the 90% got to be I’m not taking this contract. Yeah but I don’t want to die. But I see you, John Wick.
Greg: Maybe for a million, but not for us. Yeah, yeah, that’s the look on her face. Yeah. Dismissive of the 7 million.
Joe: One of my my favorite things about the John Wick world is the speed with which John Wick will make decisions. So we get to the end. He’s in the continental, and they’re like the confrontation between him and the brother Santino.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Santino is basically saying, I can just live here forever and you can’t touch me. Yeah, and John Wick has a gun pointed at him, and that’s a scene in other movies where they would have drawn it out. Like, does he or does he not shoot him? And he just shoots him? Yeah, instantaneously. It’s just like I am here to kill you.
Joe: And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m like, I’ve made up my mind. And I so appreciate that because I always like it when movies take you to like a trope that you’re waiting for, and they make a different decision.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And I think in the John Wick world, they do that in the third one, there’s a scene where he, like, shoots the, the person who who patches him up and he’s like, you got to shoot me because they’re they’re never going to believe that. You know, I didn’t help you of my own accord. And then he just shoot him like he’s just uttering the last bits of the sentence, and he’s shot like it’s not something where they like.
Joe: Are you sure they take their time? It’s like. And I always I love that about these movies where they. Yeah, it’s clearly done by people who love action movies.
Greg:
Joe: And want to twist those little moments where you’re ready for one thing and they go, nope, we’re not going to do that. So I just that those are little notes, little moments that I just, I remember from these movies more than I remember all of that. I like the crazy. I think the action scenes are great, but those are the moments that I come back to in this over and over again.
Greg: It can’t be overstated. John Wick was a nice surprise hit, and for like a year there, everybody was like, have you watched John Wick? It’s actually better. I think it’s going to be like, everybody kind of stumbled into it. And in the second movie, they really just decided this is going to be a whole thing. And with so many different decisions, like you’re saying, with kind of subverting things or with the cinematography or with the what could have been a horrible script was a great, you know, set up for the rest of the series.
Greg: Chad Stahelski doesn’t have David Leitch around. David Leitch co-directed the first one. Just tells he’s doing great on his own. Yeah, cinematography is incredible. Here’s where I’d sour on this movie a little bit.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: About 90 minutes in, I suddenly have no idea what we’re doing when we meet the Bowery King. I appreciate that all homeless people are also assassins. That was good to hear. That the underworld, you know has an underworld. So our world is growing but we spend a lot of time with Laurence Fishburne and it is all setting the table I think for the third movie.
Greg: Really. And I very much resented that while it was happening I thought we were building to something and now we’re just hanging out with Laurence Fishburne. I’m totally taken out of the movie because that’s Morpheus. And what are we doing here? Are we just setting the table for a third movie? I haven’t made up my mind on if you deserve a third movie yet.
Joe: Right.
Greg: Did you have that experience or.
Joe: I didn’t I? We needed a breath to be taken. Like he has been shot. Okay, we’ve kind of gone through this crescendo with Cassian or with common. Yep. And so we need to get to the, like the final act, essentially. And so I didn’t mind that because I was like, we just need a moment before we move into it.
Greg: Okay?
Joe: And that’s a sneaky way to like, have him recover.
Greg: Sure.
Joe: Because he’s pretty beaten up.
Greg: Yeah. Like.
Joe: You know, and again, if you’re trying to follow this movie for any kind of logic about what kills John Wick, nothing.
Greg: That’s clearly like.
Joe: But, you know, you just kind of needed like a break before we move into the last one, I agree that Laurence Fishburne does chew the scenery a little too much. There are kind of some moments where it’s like, all right, you’re just really going for it.
Greg: Can I play one moment where I enjoy it? He was going for it.
Joe: Yeah, I think, I think I know the one that you’re going to play. But let’s see.
Greg: What do you think is going to be.
Joe: The $7 million? Get you seven bullets. Get this man a gun.
Greg: Oh, it’s not that one.
Joe: Okay, that.
Greg: One was a little bit a little bit like. All right, bring it down, Larry. Yeah it is when he says, what’s the bounty on this guy? And they say $7 million. And this is his response. Damn. It’s Christmas. We’re going to Applebee’s after this.
Greg: I was like, okay, I could probably I could probably hang out here for a little while now. Yeah, that’s pretty good. Yeah. We go to Applebee’s after this. He’s just smiling. Yeah. Was that in the script?
Joe: I doubt it, but maybe. Yeah, that’s one of those, like, the line. Read on. That was perfect.
Greg: Yeah, yeah, I totally Laurence Fishburne is doing whatever Laurence Fishburne wants to do. And everyone’s cool with it. Yeah. So anyways I struggle with that in chapter two here I was kind of like what’s going on little little presumptive. Yeah. But then once he gets the seven bullets for the $7 million and he goes to the New York City.
Joe: Whatever museum that is.
Greg: Gosh, new modern museum I think is what it’s called.
Joe: I don’t think it’s a real museum.
Greg: Really. Okay. When they’re in the elevator, it like, announces what the piece is called. And Spencer mirrors. Yeah. LED lights just in every seam of that room.
Joe: That’s a really beautiful action scene. True. And I also feel like we haven’t given Ruby Rose enough credit as the like.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Head of security for the you know.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: She is perfect. And she plays a deaf person again. Of course Keanu Reeves can speak every language that’s ever spoken. Yeah. So of course you know sign language.
Greg: So he’s signing. Yeah.
Joe: And they have a pretty fun final battle together.
Greg: Yep.
Joe: I think she was a great addition to the cast. Yeah I totally agree. It’s really fun. And to get a good death you know it’s probably what you want in one of these movies is to have kind of a memorable fight scene and kind of has that computer game rules where she’s a boss. So, you know, it’s not just someone who gets shot in the head instantly and dies quickly.
Joe: She gets a knife fight. They use.
Greg: The, because I.
Joe: Feel like this was a thing that happened in a lot around this time where, like, people get stabbed through the hand as, like a shocking fight scene moment.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And that happens to her. But it’s, you know, usually it happens to the hero, and then the hero is able to, like, stop the knife from going any further. But John Wick, like, stabbed her through her hand and then just, like, keeps pushing it into her chest and it’s. Yeah. And does not give her the professional courtesy that it gives Cassian where he pulls it out.
Joe: He’s like, no, he’s he’s he’s done with her.
Greg: But she gets to say, be seeing you. Yeah. He’s like, sure it’s I yeah, I like that in this movie. It’s a sign language that is bringing the John Wick in on screen. Subtitles, captions. Yeah. You know what I think we need to do, though, is we need to talk about the second unit director on this movie.
Joe: Okay, let’s do it.
Greg: Obviously, coming from 8711, all of this is pre visualized by the company, by the team, by Chad Stahelski who has done this a bunch. But the guy who is credited is this guy named Darren Prescott. He the next year or no the same year he did the movie Baby Driver, which we will for sure be getting to people were a little disappointed by the Running man this year.
Greg: People were not disappointed by Baby Driver of the year. It came out. He has a bunch of movies that he’s worked on like ballerina, like Madame Web, like Black Panther Wakanda Forever, like Black Widow, Ford V Ferrari, John Wick Chapter three, Deadpool two, Black Panther a lot of movies. I would like to say that he has an upcoming movie that he is actually directing, and it’s called Snow Ponies.
Joe: It’s gonna be an action movie.
Greg: Here’s a I don’t want to look into what Snow Ponies is. I just thought that was the greatest name that could possibly be given for Darren Prescott’s next movie. So Snow Ponies, I’m going to watch it. I don’t even know what it is. I don’t want to know. I want to go in blind.
Joe: Okay, sweet. I will do it too. Well, maybe we’ll do, We’ll go in blind on snow ponies whenever it’s released, and we’ll.
Greg: Just whatever it is.
Joe: It’s it’s going to be a movie. And that will, we’ll do on this show 100%.
Greg: The other person I really want to point out in this movie is the cinematographer, because this movie is a more professionally shot movie than the first John Wick. I remember I kind of complained about the the coloring that was in that movie. Yeah, I mean, it was made for not much money at all. This movie looks like a gazillion dollars, and it’s not like visual effects.
Greg: It’s just they lit forever. They lit like three buildings down. They are in a room that’s massive, and the whole thing is lit in an interesting way. Shot and the lenses that they use in this movie, this guy’s name is Dan Lawson, and he is making stuff with Chad Stahelski. He’s making stuff with another director quite often, and that is Guillermo del Toro.
Greg: Wow, this guy is the real deal. But this same year as chapter two, he made the shape of Water, which won Best Picture at the Oscars. Anyways, the cinematography. This movie so much is going right, it gets a pass all over the place for me.
Joe: I think it also shows that like when you hit a certain level as a director, you can bring in talent.
Greg:
Joe: And the I, I agree 100% that this movie is beautiful. Yeah. Start to finish. Yeah.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Where again John Wick the first one. Yeah. There are moments where it feels like what’s happening I’m like it’s it’s not consistent. And this movie is gorgeous. Start to.
Greg: Finish 100%. You know Joe, it occurs to me that some people might be listening to this and they have no idea what happens in John Wick chapter two. So I’m wondering if we could make it so that, like, you’re walking down the halls of an old school video store and you’re picking up boxes off the shelf trying to figure out what you’re going to read tonight.
Greg: You’re reading the synopsis on the back. Could we do that for John Wick Chapter two?
Joe: I think so, I think I think I got you.
Greg: Okay, well, that’s right, it’s time for the back of the box.
Joe: It’s the back of the box. John Wick is forced back into action. Now he must take on a suicide mission as the walls and the bad guy is closing in around him. From the opening seconds to the final frame, John Wick crackles across the screen, taking on all comers who will be left standing when the final bullet is shot.
Greg: Is anyone left standing? I guess John Wick.
Joe: John Wick.
Greg: Winston? Winston? Sure.
Joe: No one else.
Greg: His dog. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. All right. Joe, that’s like the marketing back in the box. But can we get, like, the real unfiltered, Honest Joe’s guy? Tucker back in the box?
Joe: John Wick chapter two is a perfect sequel. It expands the action and the world without losing what made the first one so great. The action scenes are bigger, bloodier, and better. The story is thin, but ties the action scenes together in clever ways. It is my favorite of the John Wick verse, and I don’t say that lightly, as all of the movies do things I have never seen before.
Joe: It takes itself a little too seriously, and that works just fine for me.
Greg: Are you a great bad movie if you don’t take yourself a little bit too seriously?
Joe: I don’t think so. I think that that’s one of the like, key components. I think we’ve talked about this a lot, but like, yeah, if people think they’re making a great bad movie, it’s not a great bad movie.
Greg: Totally.
Joe: So they have to be thinking they’re making Citizen Kane.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: And like leaning into that. And it’s just glorious.
Greg: All right, Joe, should we get to the box office? And critical response of John Wick chapter two.
Joe: Absolutely.
Greg: Let’s play guess the budget Joe Skywalker. What do you think the budget was on John Wick Chapter two?
Joe: I feel like this feels like 100 million.
Greg: Yeah, it looks 100 million. This movie was made for $40 million. Jeez.
Joe: That’s crazy. In these days.
Greg: Isn’t that amazing? I mean, it’s Eight, nine years ago now.
Joe: Oh good job.
Greg: Yeah I bet everybody working on this was working for scale. And they had a piece of the back end. And it’s a good thing they did because the box office internationally for this movie was $171 million.
Joe: Holy cow. So it’s made some money.
Greg: Like all the John Wick movies it made around or more than four times its budget. So in the profit everybody’s getting paid and they’re going to make more. What do you think the critical response was of this movie on Rotten Tomatoes?
Joe: Feels like a 70, you know, it’s like one of our movies.
Greg: It does feel like a 70, doesn’t it?
Joe: But I’m wondering if this is, you know, Fast and Furious 4 to 5 situation, so, you know, like, people are catching on and, like, catching up. But the first one was pretty highly regarded as well. I’m going to go 85.
Greg: 89. But that’s the critics. What do you think the audience thinks of this movie?
Joe: If we’re the audience, it’s like 100%, yeah.
Greg: Yeah, it feels like 100.
Joe: Yeah, I’m going to go 92.
Greg: It’s lower than the critics. It’s 85, really. All right.
Joe: I mean, it’s still really high but.
Greg: Especially high for us. Yeah I know this is just like this.
Joe: Might as well be Citizen Kane for for our movies.
Greg: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Let’s get into what the critics said about this movie. We always like to start with the Seattle Times, our local paper, and saw and Anderson reviewed this one for the Seattle Times in 2017, saw and says, I’ll say this for John Wick Chapter two. It sure does deliver the bang for the moviegoers. Buck two and a half out of four stars.
Joe: I agree with what he said and not the his scoring, but that’s all right.
Greg: Okay, the observer UK says an adrenaline pumping blockbuster polished to near perfection save its sequel beating conclusion four out of five stars.
Joe: Yeah, I would agree with that.
Greg: That’s just about right for me. The Irish Times says the effect is a little bit like a diet of cake and ice cream. You thought you wanted it, yet you yearn for some broccoli of conversation and characterization.
Joe: I mean, I get where they’re going, but I, you know, clearly they’re not in the tank for this movie. And like.
Greg: Yeah, three out of five stars on that one. Kevin Ma from The Times UK, who goes quite hot and quite cold on movies, says it is such a hoot watching him shoot everyone in a nightclub. He shoots them in the face, under the chin, through the temple. Blam blam blam screams gore, death one out of five stars. Oh,
Joe: Though not a fan.
Greg: And honestly, the emotion that he is feeling there is kind of how I feel during those scenes. Like, oh yeah, I liked it when we were like running and jumping and driving. So that emotion that he has there tracks for me, although I do love this movie. All right. Tasha Robinson of The Verge says, John Wick Chapter two is an enjoyable enough expansion on the first film, but its final act, set up for John Wick Chapter three, is more trying than promising.
Joe: I can see that. I mean, we didn’t get into that part of the ending, but it’s definitely setting up a third one. But even if like, that was the last John Wick movie and there wasn’t a third one that ended the same way.
Greg: Great ending.
Joe: Great ending.
Greg: Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
Joe: You know, for me.
Greg: Yeah, I would have been okay with that if this was the last John Wick movie. And that’s how it ended. Yeah. For sure. Emily Saint James from Fox says something amazing here. The John Wick movies capture better than any other action movies. The peculiar feeling of being an American in the 21st century. Blessed with immense power, but always kind of bummed out about it.
Joe: Get only for about.
Greg: Three and a half out of five stars. All right, I’ll allow it. Mike LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle says this is pathetic. What kind of person is this? One out of four stars. I’m not into it.
Joe: Not into an. All right.
Greg: Sorry. I said Mike. His name’s Mike. Apologies to make this happen. All right. Detroit News says in the wrong hands, this type of thing could be a drag, but John Wick two is one of the most fun action pictures in recent memory.
Joe: A minus I agree with that.
Greg: Yep. Robert ebert.com. This is Angelica Jade Bastian says John Wick Chapter two demonstrates what film as an art form is all about. It offers and delights, challenges and provokes three and a half out of four stars.
Joe: I might be a little too pretentious for this movie.
Greg: But I think everybody should be thinking about this as critically and as thoughtfully as Angelica. I agree. I am entirely on board with it, but I was like, whoa, that is amazing. That’s that’s how I would write about this movie. But you know, I feel alone of this world. Not anymore. All right, Joe. Is it time for us to move on to drinking games?
Joe: Oh, yes, I am excited. I cannot wait to hear what you’re drinking. Games are. All right. We’re starting with our stock drinking game. That, again, does not be alcohol. It can be coffee, water, juice, a smoothie. I do cassava shakes in the morning, which is a really expensive. Oh. Not really. It’s a subscription service where it’s like all my daily vitamins, all of that.
Joe: So it could be that, too, you know? Do what you want. I throw some blueberries in there. Have a good time. So, anyway, we’ll start with our stop drinking games. Do not have a silent helicopter in this movie. Missed opportunity.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Will not be up for that award next year for the Golden Helicopter. I do not have a push it in and enhance either.
Greg: Yeah. No.
Joe: There is a, When two people share a slow motion look in the middle of chaos. Really? When the first time John Wick and Cassian see each other at the party. Definitely slow down the frame rate.
Greg: Yes.
Joe: You’re working, John.
Greg: Unfortunately. Great.
Joe: No explosion or silent suffering ringing in the ears. Opening credits scenes box into place with the sound sort of.
Greg: Yeah, the.
Joe: Score kind of rises up. There’s a little bit of an outro on it, but it’s not. Not what we’re used to.
Greg: Probably not nominated at the second annual Golden Helicopter Awards. Yeah.
Joe: It’s yeah, it’s not award worthy, but it’s possibly drink worthy, so I’ll leave it at that.
Greg: So that’s a win for everybody.
Joe: Yeah it’s a win.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Does it flashback to dialog two minutes ago. Absolutely. The opening scene flashes basically as a flashback to the first movie.
Greg: So make a drink.
Joe: There are moments when there’s some bad CGI, but for the most part it’s a pretty they don’t lean too heavily on it. So there’s a lot of CGI blood splatter. So you could kind of drink if you wanted to on that one.
Greg: Sure. Yeah.
Joe: Right. Bad shots are everywhere. Are the streets inexplicably wet? Oh my God, any time it’s at night and there’s a street, it’s wet.
Greg: So, Yeah.
Joe: Yeah. Italy, new York doesn’t matter where.
Greg: Incredible movie. If you’re just.
Joe: Openings, like two seconds. And then you see Buster Keaton, crash of motorcycle, wet street.
Greg: Street like it’s a three step process. Yeah.
Joe: There is no give us room. Interpol or cell phone smash. So those are our stock drinking game. So I toss it to you. Greg, sweetheart, what is your first drinking game?
Greg: Any time someone references a rule. Oh, I love or the rules. Take a drink.
Joe: Nice. My first one is anytime they say pencil or you see a pencil, take a drink.
Greg: That’s an amazing one. That’s the perfect number. Anytime you say hi, table, take a drink. Oh.
Joe: I have that one. No, I don’t have. Oh, yes, I do. Yes I have the high table as well. Any time they have shots of his pitbull or his dog.
Greg: Oh that’s good. Nice. Anytime somebody is preparing for battle. Loading guns, grabbing knives, loading clips. Take a drink.
Joe: Yeah. Any time you see John Wick in silhouette, usually walking down into his basement, take a drink.
Greg: That’s amazing. My next one is anytime somebody asks you working on.
Joe: That one, do.
Greg: Take a drink. Yeah.
Joe: My next one is, Anytime someone says be seeing you or see you soon, take a drink.
Greg: That’s a good one. By the way, I have a million drinking games for this movie. Awesome. The most drinking game friendly movie. We’ve done it a long time. Yeah. Any time somebody gets hit by a car.
Greg: Guy, you’re drinking.
Joe: A lot.
Greg: Of wine.
Joe: I have. Anytime someone says professional courtesy, they could drink.
Greg: The greatest. Yeah. Anytime a stunt is performed and the actor does everything they can to not show their face, meaning, like the stunt person goes way out of their way to not face the camera.
Joe: Oh, my God, there’s so many about.
Greg: Yeah. Like, yeah.
Joe: Tucking their chin in their arms and no way. It’s so great. I have So this is ways that people refer to John Wick. So. Okay, there is.
Greg: Mr. Wick,
Joe: John, Jonathan and John Wick. So any time his name is said in any kind of any way, take a drink.
Greg: So great. Anytime they show their highly stylized subtitles or capsules.
Joe: That’s a great one.
Greg: Take a drink.
Joe: Any time John Wick is shot, take a drink.
Greg: Does that include when he shot on his bulletproof suit? Yeah. Okay. Great. Great. I love it. Anytime there’s fighting and killing in public and nobody is alarmed.
Greg: Take a drink.
Joe: Anytime when someone’s name is used as a greeting. John. Cassian.
Greg: Winston. Every time John Wick pauses, fighting someone to kill other people and then goes back to kill the person that he was initially fighting had.
Joe: So many times in this movie, he’s just like, this guy’s just being held.
Greg: There. Can’t move. No.
Joe: Completely incapacitated.
Greg: Yeah, yeah.
Joe: This is a, a John Woo special. But anytime you see doves in this movie, take a drink.
Greg: Oh, yeah. Or pigeons.
Joe: Or pigeons. Yeah, they’re the same thing, really.
Greg: But yeah. Yeah, totally. Any time John Wick gets rid of his empty clip by, like, twisting his wrist really hard, and that launches the clip against the wall next to him.
Joe: That is actually something that Keanu Reeves invented. Oh, for this movie.
Greg: Wow.
Joe: And is now used by, like, other people. Like no one had done that. Like it’s like he created that as the faster way in making this movie to reload his gun. Well, it’s one of those like, I’ve seen people in like the military talking about, like that’s something that no one else has had ever done before. And Keanu Reeves is just like, this is a faster way to do this for the movie.
Joe: And now it’s like a thing.
Greg: So wow, that’s amazing.
Joe: John Wick save is, is, saving the world?
Greg: I guess I’m trying to think of something he did in the Busan speed that started launched some new craze in busses as well. Yeah.
Joe: Jumping.
Greg: Yeah. Riding underneath.
Joe: Exactly. All right, here’s my last one. Okay. Every time John Wick speaks, another language.
Greg: Great. Solid. He does a thing when he looks at guns, when he’s holding guns, and when he’s, like, battling people and he’s holding his gun up, he tilts it 45 degrees. Really fast. I don’t know why. I don’t need to know why, but every time he tilts his gun 45 degrees. Take a drink.
Joe: Yeah, it looks cool as all I can think of, but.
Greg: Every time somebody flies through glass of any kind.
Joe: So much in this movie.
Greg: Take a drink. And any time somebody says excommunicate. Oh. Oh.
Joe: That’s a good one. I did, I missed that one. That’s awesome.
Greg: I think we should just say if anyone throws a great bad movies party for John Wick Chapter two, one or both of us will figure out how to get there.
Joe: Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. It does tell us where and when you figure it out.
Greg: All right, Joe, I think it’s time for Joe’s trope lightning round, aka signs. You might be watching a great bad movie.
Joe: So we have the name of the movie set by a character of John Wick. Obviously getting the place ready for a fight montage. We have that really for him in the catacombs as he’s setting up his escape. I’m fine. Literally finding the keys to his car under the visor when he in the opening scene, it was great, is the best at something.
Joe: He’s kind of a reluctant hero. Revenge is the driver. The protagonist is coming out of retirement for one last job. Hits all of our marks. They’re the best. They have a pretty charismatic antagonist or bad guy in this. And then we have the henchmen who are allowed to hurt him. We don’t really have a duffle bag full of guns, but we have a room full of guns in the Somalia’s office.
Greg: Sure.
Joe: And then in the opening scene, there’s like, guns, and then they’re counting money. So it’s kind of like a duffle bag full of money as well. We have a bulletproof vest. Check. After he’s shot a couple different times. Medical care from a loved one, or in this case, the Bowery King, and checking to see if a gun is loaded.
Joe: So those are our trope. Lightning rounds.
Greg: When they’re in the bad guy layer at the very beginning, they’re pulling things out of New York City taxis. They’re like hidden in the seats and whatever. Yeah. And it’s like enormous bags of white drugs. Yeah. Cash wood in boxes that we should assume have the gold coins. I think we see those wooden boxes with coins in them later.
Greg: And, and are there guns. There’s, there’s like guns.
Joe: Yeah.
Greg: Every signal that this is a bad guy is in those shots. Like. All right, well, I guess we know what we need to know here. All right, Joe, I feel like we’ve been talking about this movie a while, and we’ve been kind of dancing around a couple subjects. Is it time for some important questions?
Joe: Absolutely. Let’s bring it on.
Greg: Joe. First important question. Did John Wick chapter two hold up? Then in 2017?
Joe: I absolutely think it does. Or did. Yeah.
Greg: Does it hold up now?
Joe: Every time I watch it it holds up. So yeah.
Greg: Yeah. Do you think it’s better or the same or worse?
Joe: I think it gets better.
Greg: I do too.
Joe: These movies because of all of what they are putting into them from a stunt perspective, need multiple watches to me. Like I appreciate all of what they’re doing. Yeah. In them and you can’t really get it in one. Watching what I have found with all of these movies is the more I watch them, the more I appreciate how much work and care goes into the stunts on these movies.
Greg: Yeah. Months? Yeah. Months of practice and visualization. Yeah. Joe, in this movie, how hard this other good guy.
Joe: Really?
Greg: The proper amount.
Joe: The proper amount? Yeah.
Greg: Yes. How hard they sell the bad guy.
Joe: Did they really sell the bad guy a little bit.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Sort of.
Greg: A really? Yeah. Joe, very important question. Why is there romance in this movie?
Joe: There’s like no romance in this movie. There’s like, wistful former love as he looks at a video of his wife that has passed away. But there’s just no romance. There’s there’s no time for that. He’s got killing to do.
Greg: So there doesn’t need to be romance in the second chapter. Yeah. Are we bad people for loving this movie?
Joe: I can’t think of a world where we’re not.
Greg: Could be worse. Could be worse. But yes, 100%. Yes. Yeah. Joe, does this movie deserve a sequel?
Joe: I don’t know if it deserves one. I don’t know if it needs one, but it got two and I feel like this is the best sequel. Yep. And it’s one of the best sequels. You’ll get to a movie to me, like some usually and sequels that like, there’s diminishing returns that happens and they’re trying to retread, and they do a good job of avoiding that.
Joe: I think in subsequent movies it kind of starts to fall off a little bit for me, but I will watch every single one of them. Yeah, I don’t care how many we are at so deserve is a little hard, but I think if we if we ended it after this one, you know, I, I always worry about jumping the shark with, with these sorts of worlds that are built and thinking about like, what if we didn’t have Fast and Furious eight, nine, ten and ten part two.
Greg: You know. Yeah.
Joe: I would probably feel different about that series if we just had this, you know, the seven instead of the whatever we are on. So.
Greg: We didn’t talk about how we jump from room to New York with zero logical sense or travel time in this movie.
Joe: Oh yeah. There’s. Yeah Hobbs and Shaw travel logic everywhere.
Greg: It’s like Hobbs and Shaw teleportation.
Joe: I think the Roam Winston person says travel arrangements have been made. Okay okay. And that is the only cue that we have that we’re going back to New York.
Greg: Yeah, but then.
Joe: We’re in New York like that. So, yeah, totally.
Greg: Totally.
Joe: It’s ridiculous and perfect.
Greg: Does this movie deserve a prequel?
Joe: I would totally want a prequel that is, crazy job that he does to get out. So.
Greg: Okay, so a prequel to the first one. Okay. I’m going to say that there should be a sequel, a prequel to the second one, and it’s like a rogue One like prequel that illuminates exactly what happened in the five minutes between John Wick Williams. I’m like two. They’re leaving the story on the table there. Yeah, but I need to know.
Greg: Yeah. All right, Joe, maybe my favorite question should this have been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars?
Joe: I would love to know what was up in 2018, 2017.
Greg: All right, well, we got The Shape of Water, which was the winner.
Joe: Okay.
Greg: Call me by your name, which was, Luca Guadagnino. Darkest hour.
Joe: I have never heard of that movie. I don’t think that’s a real movie.
Greg: Joe. Get this. I had the same feeling. Darkest hour is with Gary Oldman playing Churchill.
Joe: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I had heard of that. Okay. Yes.
Greg: What’s. Yeah. Okay. How have I not seen this movie?
Joe: Yeah. Me either. I love Gary Oldman.
Greg: I mean, I did have a like one year old when this movie came out, so yeah, that’s a.
Joe: Pretty good excuse.
Greg: The next movie nominated for Best Picture. Dunkirk. Speaking of Christopher Nolan. Which I guess we haven’t spoken about on Mike in this episode, but we spoke extensively about Christopher Nolan before we started recording. Yeah.
Joe: No, I and then that’s actually one of my favorite Nolan movies. It’s worthy of, of accolades.
Greg: The next movie is Get Out pretty strong. Next movie is Lady Bird.
Joe: Who’s in that?
Greg: How do you say your name is? Persia? Ronin.
Joe: Oh, shoot. Yeah.
Greg: But, first, the directorial debut. Just, like, Get Out.
Joe: Like Greta Gerwig.
Greg: Yeah, it’s Greta Gerwig’s first movie. Oh that’s.
Joe: Right. Okay.
Greg: It’s amazing. It takes place in Sacramento. It’s kind of in Northern California. All right. Honestly, it’s a really good movie, by the way. Next movie, Phantom Thread.
Joe: Anderson I’m still not seeing any reason why John Wick Chapter two isn’t sitting right among these.
Greg: Okay, that’s my point. Although this list of movies is unbelievable.
Joe: Yeah, it’s pretty strong.
Greg: Yeah. Next movie is The Post Steven Spielberg’s The Post, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks about the Nixon tapes.
Joe: Right? Wow. This is a really strong year. Amazing directors like classic directors, new directors.
Greg: And the last movie is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Joe: Oh, I know, yeah. Frances McDormand.
Greg: Yeah. So, nine nominees. Hey, guys, I’ve got an easy ten.
Joe: Yeah, absolutely.
Greg: I think these movies probably beat John Wick, but only because of the ranked voting that they do.
Joe: And it’s an honor to be nominated and then action movie being nominated as would be a a big deal. So yeah. Yeah, I’m here for it.
Greg: Okay. Next question. How can this movie be fixed? AKA who should be in the remake?
Joe: I had to go back to what I said in the last January for John Wick. The first.
Greg: One.
Joe: I stand by this. I really want to see The Matrix, Johnny Mnemonic and John Wick together. We have the love of.
Greg: Animals.
Joe: And super smart animals and Johnny Mnemonic and John Wick of The Matrix or his neo. We have Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves back together again for the first time since The Matrix. We have super smart animals helping Neo Wick fight the high table of AI machines. It’s all right there. It’s just like, let’s bring these worlds together. They have been separate for too long, and Johnny Mnemonic is famously a terrible movie that we saw in the theaters together.
Joe: And I think I’ve only seen it once, maybe twice, and I have no real memory of it other than he has. They’ve implanted some memory, some information in his head, and he’s trying to get it out. And it’s.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: It’s glorious. It’s got Denis Leary, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, and,
Greg: And I fear that.
Joe: The often for some reason.
Greg: Super smart dolphin survivors right there you.
Greg: How would.
Joe: You make this movie.
Greg: Better? Okay, I have to ask you a couple questions. I’m sure I did this a year ago as well. Neo, John Wick and Johnny Mnemonic, three different characters that Keanu Reeves is playing in the movie.
Joe: Oh, that’s an interesting question. I had thought of them as playing one character. Okay, okay. But I think actually, now that I think about it, let’s have Keanu Reeves play three.
Greg: Characters.
Joe: In the movie.
Greg: Okay?
Joe: And really lean into this.
Greg: Okay, I’m on board.
Joe: It’s like when, you know, when when actor plays twins, you know, but he’s playing triplets in this game.
Greg: It’s.
Joe: It would take that centers. We’ve we’ve upped the ante centers.
Greg: There’s a lot of Eddie Murphy like clumps kind of energy coming to you tonight.
Joe: Yeah I know, I don’t know what’s going on.
Greg: Can one of them be super obese and one of them be a woman? Like a court grandma? Okay.
Joe: Yeah, absolutely.
Greg: Okay, great.
Joe: Can also play the, the super smart dolphin. I’m.
Greg: He wins an Oscar for that?
Joe: Absolutely.
Greg: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so if I’m thinking back to last January, I think it was a shot for shot remake. There’s a chance Hugh Grant played John Wick. If I remember right. And he was spilling a spot of tea on everybody and that immediately killed them, I think that was my face.
Joe: Very apologetic about it.
Greg: Though very blunt and self-deprecating obviously. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I had not thought about that before writing this. But my answer this time is that’s reshot the same in every single way with all of the same people. But in this world, when somebody says something about I to the other person, that person immediately dies and they are killed by stupid conversational skills and a real lack of I understanding based on whoever’s saying it to the other person.
Greg: Awesome. That’s what it tells you in the new John Wick. Perfect. Please stop talking about your uninformed opinions. Okay, Joe, next important question. What album is this movie?
Joe: I spent a lot of time thinking about this and last time I came up with Nirvana’s Never mind, this change the action movies that changed music. I’m actually going with Nirvana’s In Utero. Oh, it’s the follow up.
Greg: Yep.
Joe: It’s my favorite Nirvana album. I like In Utero better than nevermind.
Greg:
Joe: And I it’s just.
Greg: It’s.
Joe: Got an edge to it and a polish to it that I think that they cleaned up kind of from you know, and Kurt Cobain kind of famously said that that was like and nevermind was their pop album. And this was kind of getting back to what they really wanted to do. And so.
Greg: To me.
Joe: This is a really worthy second album, second movie. So that’s what it is, what it is. What is this for you?
Greg: So I was looking for a second album, and I decided not to do Nirvana because it would have been nevermind. He did that for the first one. And I think you won a Golden helicopter for that. Do I remember right? Yeah, I think I see the trophy right behind you. It’s incredible.
Joe: It’s really heavy. If I would show it to you when it’s.
Greg: Heavier than you think. Yeah. So I didn’t do Nirvana, but I was looking for a second album that not only was an improvement, a world building aperture change, but also it set the scene for, you know, many albums to come. And the album that I came up with was The Killers second album, Sam’s Town.
Joe: That is one of the best albums to finish out there.
Greg: Yeah. And by the way, Hot Fuzz, the album before it should basically be called Greatest Hits, plus two songs. Like, both of these albums could just basically be titled Greatest Hits Part one and part two. Yeah, but think about it. Hot Fuzz was such a, Did you say Hot Fuzz before that? It’s bound to happen. I love that movie.
Greg: Hot fuzz is such a good I think of like, the Las Vegas Strip when I listen to that, you know, because they’re from Vegas. It’s like the glossy side, the Mr. Brightside band, that kind of album. And then Sam’s Town is like the other side of Las Vegas that nobody really sees the real side. And I think they are kind of bouncing between those two albums still today successfully in my mind.
Greg: I really like killers albums. Yeah, those are kind of like their two corners as perfect.
Joe: And again, I can’t underscore this enough. Sam’s town is one of the best albums start to finish out there.
Greg:
Joe: No bad songs. It’s kind of been that concept album world to me. Yes. Wow.
Greg: Yeah it is. It’s taking risks.
Joe: And it’s actually a song that are an album that Michael and I have talked about a lot. He really likes that album. I turned him on to that and it’s so good. It’s just there are great songs on it that you can pluck out, but to me, if you’re in the mood for that album, you need to listen to it start to finish.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: It’s one of those like, you just got to do that to me. It is so good. I love that. I love that choice.
Greg: When hot first came out, it was amongst a lot of bands that were like had a lot of swagger and look at us, we’re wearing a suit we have ties on and it could have been a one off, like a lot of those bands that, you know, put out records in that set of years. And then when Sam’s Town came out, it was just bigger.
Greg: It had bigger ambition, you know, richer themes. It just turned them into, oh, this band is going to be around forever. And the same thing with John Wick Chapter two, like, oh, okay, we can just do this for five minutes. Yeah, yeah, we’re going to do spinoff TV shows and I’m totally fine that. So anyways, if you want to hear what our choices have been throughout time since the beginning of this podcast, go to Spotify and listen to Great Bad Movies music, our playlist on Spotify.
Greg: All right Joe it’s all come down to this. How are we going to rate John Wick Chapter two.
Joe: This is a great bad movie.
Greg: Great bad movie.
Joe: I can’t even entertain anything less in my mind.
Greg: So yeah, literally, this is why this show exists. Movies like John Wick Chapter two. Like that’s ridiculous. Oh, and I love it in every way. Yeah.
Joe: In fact, I’m only watching this movie for the next week.
Greg: Yeah. So I mean it’s January. Yeah. Try month.
Joe: Well, what else have I got to watch?
Greg: Yeah, totally. All right. Well Joe, we did it.
Joe: Yeah, we had the conversation the movie had about John Wick chapter two. You had, what, nine years now? Yeah. So you’re welcome. No one else needs to talk about this movie.
Greg: This movie premiered January 30th, 2017.
Joe: That’s crazy.
Greg: And then it came out in the theater in February. But I like to know. I liked knowing that the premiere came out in January. Yeah.
Joe: As it should.
Greg: It probably goes without saying. Spoilers for John Wick Chapter two.
Joe: Yeah, spoilers. Be careful if you if you haven’t seen it, you should probably pause this podcast, go watch the movie, and then come right back to this moment.
Greg: Yeah, it’s good advice. Yeah. We don’t want to ruin it. Yeah. If you want to get a hold of us or listen any back episodes, you can find them in your podcast app. You can find us on Great Bad movies.com. We post stuff to Instagram, great bad movies show like and subscribe. Follow us, tell your friends if you would rate us in your podcast app, and especially if you would leave a comment.
Greg: It’s really the best way, I think, for the algorithms to pick up that people are enjoying great bad movies and the algorithm likes that. So if you could write a comment in your app, that would be unbelievable. Thank you for that.
Joe: Please do it. The best way to keep us going on this probably your favorite podcast that no one else knows about.
Greg: So. Is there anything else we need to say? I don’t.
Joe: Think so. But, you know, listen, this has been great.
Greg: Yeah.
Joe: Like super great. Sure. But someone just gave me a marker, and apparently I have to do whatever they say. And now I’m in Rome and I have to kill the pope, so.
Greg: I don’t know. Wow. Just took a weird turn.
Joe: Yeah, it took a dark turn. Sorry.
Greg: So you need to do that now?
Joe: Yeah. Right now I. The blood oath. What oath? You know.
Greg: Okay, so sounds like you need to go. Yeah, yeah.
Joe: I can’t, I can’t say no. I tried, and then they blew up my house, so.
Greg: That works for me because I don’t know how to say this. You probably heard in the background someone has jumped through all of the windows and mirrors in my house. Yeah, yeah. So I need to go find my broom and clean, clean this up. I don’t know who did this but I don’t appreciate it. So I better go.
Joe: Yeah listen I get it. I totally totally go have fun sweeping everything up. But this has been great. But if someone asks me if I’m working again, I’m going to lose it. I completely. I just cannot handle it. Just stop asking if I’m working again. For the love of God.
Greg: And you will know that Joe’s guy Tucker is super worked up about it. Because I’ll say I’m afraid so. Yeah, right. So.
Greg: Okay, well, that works for me because, I just found this gold coin on the ground. So I’m going to walk into this hotel and see if I can get a room for a couple of cocktails and maybe a dead body clean up with it.
Joe: Yeah, probably. Probably invest in Bitcoin or something like that. It has a lot left over. Apparently. Yeah. Anyway, I got to go to. I’ve got to go sit in a museum and wait for a phone call. And then I have a meeting with someone. I know it’s weird, but I love art, I guess, and sitting in museums.
Joe: So it’s not really an office home away from home.
Greg: Okay. Well, that works for me because the rapper coming to set up with it, which is awesome. But he also showed up with a gun with a silencer on it, which is concerning. So I think I’m going to go have a very polite gun fight with him in this train station.
Joe: That that tracks, I ain’t got to go to. I have a tasting with a Somali, so I’m curious what that will be. I love wine and guns, apparently so.
Greg: Okay, well, that works for me because you’ve probably have heard in the background I’ve been on the subway this whole time. Yeah, yeah. And two of the dudes are suddenly fighting to the death with knives. I think I should actually. It’s fine. I probably need you guys. Right. So yeah I’ll probably.
Joe: Just maybe move one seat.
Greg: Over. Yeah. Maybe save.
Joe: Yeah. Listen, this is, this has been great, but someone just said see you soon in sign language, so I think I’m going to go hide out for a while and.
Greg: Make sure everything blows over. All right, well, that works for me, so I will see you soon. Here.
Joe: Soon.
Greg: Happy January.