The Last Stop in Yuma County and Streets of Fire with Ryan Verrill - Talking Pondo

 In this episode Ryan Verrill, co-founder of Antenna Releasing, joins the podcast. He brings along the movie The Last Stop in Yuma County. Marty and Clif give Ryan the movie Streets of Fire to watch.

Before diving into this week's picks, Ryan talks physical media, boutique Blu-rays and what it takes to launch a new independent film distribution company. 

First up is Streets of Fire, Walter Hill's neon-soaked rock 'n' roll fairy tale starring Michael Paré, Diane Lane and Willem Dafoe. Clif, Marty and Ryan celebrate the film's unforgettable visual style, killer soundtrack, larger-than-life characters and why this gloriously over-the-top cult classic still feels perfectly '80s. 

Then it's on to The Last Stop in Yuma County, the tense crime thriller from Francis Galluppi. With Ryan having worked alongside Galluppi through Antenna Releasing, the discussion offers a unique behind-the-scenes perspective on the film's journey to audiences, while also celebrating its sharp writing, terrific ensemble cast and expertly sustained tension. 

Along the way: physical media collecting, puddles as cinematography, music videos hiding inside movies and a lot of Walter Hill appreciation.

#TalkingPondo #FilmPodcast #StreetsOfFire #TheLastStopInYumaCounty #RyanVerrill #AntennaReleasing #PhysicalMedia #MovieReview 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Yeah, the the image is one thing that I I mean I know we're gonna get into everything, but the big thing that I I I really wanted to hit home today, so I'm gonna make this my front and center argument. When did we when did we have our our filmmakers forget that puddles are the epitome of cinematography? The amount of neon lights bouncing off of puddles just that you can see. He wets everything down. Exactly everything down.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

The streets of water, yes, my God, because he does. He wets everything down, but then again, you get the neon bouncing off of it.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Yeah. The the kissing in the rain, all of it is so perfect. And yeah, the the suspension of disbelief has to be completely just swept away in the process here.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Welcome to season four of Talking Pondo. Talking Pondo is a podcast where Clip and Marty give each other a film to watch and talk about them in detail. Some episodes will include a special guest.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Norman Bates takes the money and runs will not be seen this week, so we may bring you Willem Defoe wearing black leather bib overalls already in progress.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Boy, if you have a vinyl leather fetish and you are a fan of William Dafoe, this is the episode for you. Apparently his outfits were fireproof, so he could walk through the sets. I mean, he looked fireproof, to be completely honest with you.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

He looked like he'd been sprayed with some sort of chemical retardant in that. And I saw that those overalls went for auction about 10 years ago for about a thousand dollars. So maybe they'll come up again if somebody out there wants to purchase them.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

I mean, I would not look as good as Willem in them, but if I had them, I would I would wear them.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Right. It's a set every day. Well, we're back again. It's uh Talking Pondo. Uh I'm Marty. Hey, I'm Cliff. And uh we're back with uh two more movies this week, and we also have uh a new guest for us this week.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Woohoo!

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Yeah, today's guest is Ryan Verrell. Did I say your name right? You did, thank you. Fantastic. He's from Antenna Releasing and someone's favorite productions. So you might be hearing some of the podcasts that we like to listen to are part of his podcast network. And so uh welcome to the show, Ryan. Could you tell us a little bit about what you do and what you've been up to lately? Sure, happily.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Uh I am Ryan Verrill, a big physical media enthusiast. Uh I know this is an audio medium, but for those that are in studio with us, you can see a ton of films behind me.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Dude's got like a hundred films in view easily. Probably more than that if I was counting.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

And that's literally just what you can see. I mean, now you put this camera up and there's even more thoroughly. It is the entire there's stacks. I'm about to die. Uh so yeah, that that's what got me into this world. Um, a handful of years ago, I started a YouTube channel, and I don't really know how, but it um I won't say the YouTube channel took off. I don't have a ton of subscribers, but my network took off. I started interviewing uh people in the boutique physical media uh landscape. I started interviewing some filmmakers. I've had Joe Lynch, Sean Baker, Todd Strauss Schulz and a bunch of other individuals. Baker.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

I I'm proud to call Sean a friend. Yeah, he's he's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

That's really impressive, man.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Um had had them on the show, and uh one of the people that I had on the show is actually a filmmaker that we're gonna talk about today. And during my conversation with Francis Galoopy, who directed Last Top in Uimick County, we were like geeking out over audio commentaries, and we basically were just you know kind of like giggling like schoolgirls and talking about our favorite ones, and he jokingly said, Should we start a Blu-ray company? And I was like, ha ha, wait, are you are you serious?

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Yes, yes, yes, we should.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yes. I uh I I I took that to the extreme. Showed up at Francis' house three and a half months later, and we literally now run antenna releasing together. Oh wow, that's fantastic. We are currently releasing films in theaters, we are putting films on streaming digital releases, and our home video imprint launches this fall, and we've got more than a year of theatrical releases already scheduled. I've got multiple years of home video releases ready to go, and that is all on top of currently running a uh podcast network. I publish a physical media and film-focused magazine every single month. Um, I yeah, there's probably more than I'm oh, I I guess I should say I run The Disconnected. Uh, this is uh the big physical media uh account across all social media, and around that I do a live stream every Thursday night to cover all of the announcements that come out, have a guest on, discuss uh something surrounding film, like top five of some actor, director, or a genre, or break down like uh our favorites of the year or something like that. It's we've covered kind of everything because I've been doing it uh every single Thursday since the summer of 2021, and I've only ever missed two Thursdays, and neither one was truly my fault.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

So wow. Well, I have to say, physical media is king. Um, I I when I was younger or when streaming first came out, I thought, well, this is great because it'll be you know, we can you'll aggregate, it's just it was just Netflix, right? So you're like, okay, everything's on Netflix, I'll just pay one fee and I can watch a bunch of stuff. And then it became, and I remember hearing my dad several years later, after all the platforms were out, and he goes, Why can't I just get one login and pay one price to get all these things? And I'm like, cable, you want fucking cable.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Literally, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

And so, and so he has YouTube TV now, which is this, you know, YouTube TV is basically just the it's cable for for people who want cable, right? All the channels you can scroll through it and all that shit. It's got a D VR. Um, but I started to get back into physical media pretty hard, especially when I started realizing how much it was hard to find and things that like, especially certain types of you know, certain copies or releases of films, and we're just like, Jesus, okay. I don't want to watch this, I want to watch the copy I remember seeing when I was a kid or that I saw in the theater and so on, right? Like Star Wars is a perfect example, right? Uh, you know, God bless the people who put the 4K project out and gave us the actual Star Wars release in 4K, right? Because Lucas ain't gonna fucking do it. You know, he's like, you get your laserd copies and you shut up and watch my and watch my stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:58

So I I don't I don't mean to deflate you and not to add to the rumor, Mill, but the the big rumor is that we should actually be hearing about a proper I have heard about that.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

I have heard about that, and I I believe the 4K project is what pushed that to the front, where they were like, oh, there's an interest in this version, this release? Okay, sure, we'll make because I mean Disney will make Disney doesn't care, they'll make money off of whatever they can throw at you, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:19

So absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Um anyway, I I just wanted to jump in on the bandwagon and be like, yay, physical media.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

I mean, it's a big deal. Uh, you know, one of the two films that we're about to talk about tonight, if you want to watch that movie, you literally have to pay to rent it, or you have to own it on disc or tape or something, and uh, not to be, you know, uh condescending towards anybody. Even if you're streaming it or renting it and you're paying, I don't think it was $3.99 or something on a couple of the services. Right now, I've got the 4K disc at home, and this disc looks leagues better than anything that you're gonna rent or watch online. It looks fucking amazing. Like this is an astonishingly beautiful film. So anyway.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Well, and I even the 4K streams you're getting are compressed, you know what I mean. By a lot, yeah. Yeah, by a lot. They're not, you're not. I mean, because if they did, you'd need a you'd need a pretty big pipe down. You need a nice bandwidth, you know. It's true. And and Netflix isn't gonna invest in that anyway.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

I I don't call it 4K, I call it Faux K.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Faux K. Oh, I like that. Okay, faux K. That's cool. Um well, cool. Thanks for coming on the program, man. We appreciate it. Honored to be here. Appreciate it. Yeah, um, so what do you guys think?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

What do you want to start with first? Cliff, uh, what movies are we?

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Oh, yeah, hey, let's talk about that. So, a couple of good ones here. Um, we offered him three movies, and he chose Streets of Fire from 1984, and then he gave us Last Stop in Yuma County, which is from 2023.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

A movie we strangely have that Kevin Bacon connection to. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

And and one strangely, this is this kind of type of film is kind of right up our alley, so I'm surprised that both of us it passed both of us by. You know what I mean? Glad you got to see it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

We did. So we got one piece of listener mail before we dive into the movies here. It's an about our episode on Moonlight and the Martian from a few weeks ago. That's an interesting pairing. But the titles go well together, I thought. And it's none other than Dylan J. Schlender writing in saying, Moonlight was a chore to get through, but I have to hope Marty agrees with me. Well, no, I I don't. I liked the movie. I liked it quite a bit, actually. But I enjoyed it too. I can understand how it might be a little slow or tedious for some people.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

I think we talked about the fact that it wasn't it wasn't breaking any new ground story-wise, but that it was but that it was probably the best told story of that nature. Right. Right. It's uh so well put together. And I love the color of the film. Like going up against Lala Land, I feel like they had a lot of the same wonderful coloring in that film. So pretty to watch them.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

And so we usually let the guests decide what movie we want to talk about first today.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

So I uh I I I'm eager to dive into Streets of Fire. I for those that have never seen it, man, it there's so much we can say about it. Man, yes. Okay, Streets of Fire.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Ready? Uh so yeah, what is the uh black leather bib overall movie, Cliff? What is Streets of Fire? It's much more than that, but that's one of those striking images where you it is.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Um in a film full of striking images, but we'll get there. Uh Streets of Fire, 1984, PG, uh one hour 33 minutes. Here's your log line. A mercenary is hired to rescue his ex-girlfriend, a singer who has been kidnapped by a motorcycle gang. This is directed and written by Walter Hill and Larry uh sorry, also written by Larry Gross, stars Michael Poray, Diane Lane, Rick Moranis, and of course Willem Defoe. Uh let's see, storyline. Another time, another place. The bombers, a motorcycle gang led by Raven, kidnaps rock star Ellen Aim as she is performing in concert with her band, The Attackers, in her home neighborhood of the Richmond. The kidnapping is solely in Raven's obsession with her, and waitress Reva Cody is ultimately able to convince her intellectually initially reluctant brother, former soldier Tom Cody, to rescue Ellen, his former girlfriend, who Reva believes Tom truly still loves, despite she is now in a relationship with her demanding manager, Billy Fish. Ooh, I feel like this is AI written. Tom and Ellen broke up in their in their diverging lives. Tom uses the assistance of Fish as the bank roll, and another former soldier McCoy, who wants to eke out a career as a soldier of fortune, they needing to penetrate into Raven's tough neighborhood of the battery to locate Ellen. Tom realizes that it will not be as simple a job as getting in and out of the battery with Ellen, as Raven is not the type to get up without a fight, perhaps to the death. What may be more of an issue for Tom is confronting Ellen once again, especially difficult with Fish on his team, and Fish considering her now his property.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

And yet more simplified.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

And yet very simple at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. All right, well let's let's dive in. Um so I'll start with the fact that I I adore this movie. I saw it when I was a kid, 84, I think I was 11. And uh I thought Diane Lane was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen, and I thought um Michael Paret was the toughest guy I'd ever seen. And I've been a Michael Paret fan ever since. Like I I love him in any of the cruisers, I love him in the Philadelphia experiment. You know, any anything Michael Parade's in, I'm gonna watch. You got to say hello to him. I got to meet him and he's a super nice guy. Yeah, super, super cool dude. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

I I adore this myself. Uh saw it on VHS decades ago uh for the very first time. I I swear I've owned this film on uh there's only been like seven formats it's come out on. I've I'd swear I've owned it on 14. Um it is one of those movies that no matter when it comes out, I have to buy the newest version, and somehow it keeps looking better and better, which really shows how much Walter Hill was able to get on film back then. And unless you were in there opening night that first weekend, I guarantee your print looked battered to hell. And throughout the years, it has always looked battered to hell. But man, the new 4K for this movie is striking, almost as striking as Diane Lane in this film.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Did they went back? Did they go back to the negative for the for the 4K? Oh yes. Very okay. So I'm gonna have to get I'm gonna have to go get a copy of that. That's um because the if you watch this movie, one of the things I love about it is the production design and the artistic design of the movie, like the all the fucking color and colorful neon, the hot rod, the sweet hot rods, everybody's dressed in kind of 50s bobby socks, kind of you know, late 50s clothing, but it feels futuristic.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

There's that weird photo 50s.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

It's a fairy tale. They tell you right at right away, another time, another place. Like this is not, don't take this as reality. This is a this is a rock fable, you know. And if you if you get that going in and you just let go of any kind of like, you know, I don't know, just buy into it and and and uh let go of your um suspicion or your uh what's the suspensive disbelief, right? If you if you dive but dive into it, I think you're gonna have a good time with this movie.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah, this is another one that I thought I had seen, but I was just familiar with the music video because the big hit song. It much like Strange Brew and some of these other movies we've covered lately, it's like, oh shit, I've never really sat down and watched this thing. That was a fun discovery. And I watched it on the projector, but I watched that non-anamorphic DVD from like the late 90s or whatnot. And you know, it still looked it still looked good, but I could imagine it looking a lot crisper with the the new transfer.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

The uh the the images, one thing that uh I mean, I know we're gonna get into everything, but the big thing that I I really wanted to hit home today, so I'm gonna make this my front and center argument. When did we when did we have our our filmmakers forget that puddles are the epitome of cinematography? The amount of neon lights bouncing off of puddles just so that you can see. He wets everything down, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

He wets everything down, the streets of water, yes, my god, because he does. He wets everything down, but then again, you get the neon bouncing of a philosophy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

The the kissing in the rain, all of it is so perfect. And yeah, the the suspension of disbelief has to be completely just swept away in the process here because it's not meant to be real, it's meant to be uh, you know, a 50s world set in 80s garb, basically. And it it is somehow pulled off in the best of ways, and not to mention the the bookends of this film are so just astonishingly 80s in the way that the the music scene was at that time. It is a world to get lost in.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

It's the it's the writer who wrote Meatloaf stuff, right? That guy? He did he did the open he did the opening song, at least, the one uh The Edge of the Night, or whatever that song's called. But he you can you can hear his phrasing and his signature sort of lyrical quality in that. Like Meatloaf could easily sing that song and it would fit Meatloaf perfectly. Exactly. Um but I I but I I liked it. I didn't have a problem with that. Um, I mean this uh you don't get a lot of films where Lee Ving punches Bill Paxton in the fucking face, man. And that's Lee Ving from fear punching Bill Paxton from aliens in the fucking face, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Sorry. It's amazing. I I prefer Lee Ving from Clue punching Bill Paxton from near Dark.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

I'll take the Lee Ving anytime I could get it. I'll take the I'll take Lee Ving from Dudes punching uh biscuit in the face, punching Lee Ving from get crazy.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

If you want to go.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

There we go. So the village people show up to a rock show and in a fit of rage about the shitty movie that they're in, they kidnap the lead singer. Is that what I'm is that the plot of the I'm just kidding. It's just that when they come into the concert, they all look like they're the leather people from the village people. They're all everybody in this movie is leathered out, vinyled out, rubbered out, and then in comes Tom Cody, who looks like he just finished mowing the back 40 and stocking the hay with his fucking suspenders. And so it's like this I love the movie because they it just the wild choices that Walter Hill makes. It's the guy that made the Warriors for fuck's sake, right? Like, holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Even more than that.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

It's just so much more. It's so much more. And much like the Warriors, we uh once we hit the street, we go from piece to piece to piece to piece, right? We have this fight, we meet at Bakley Jr., we pay him, we go to the battery, we have our little thing there, then we go back, we do the thing. You know, it's all these little moments, just like in Warriors, where we ride we ride the subway, we fight the guys with the bats, we move on with the weird clown people, and so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

I I I like to think of this actually as in the Warriors universe, but it's more of a crossover film with uh I I just mentioned Near Dark, but uh, another Catherine Bigelow shout-out. It feels like The Loveless meets the Warriors. And it's uh if you've never seen The Loveless, it's uh Willem Dafoe's film that's about another motorcycle gang that came out about two years before this one. And interesting. He yeah, it is a really fun idea to think of those as just a melding of those two films.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

I do love the idea that the Warriors and and Streets of Fire take place in the same universe.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

I I kind of feel like they have to be. They're both elevated in that weird sort of pseudo-reality, and everything about it is uh it's just a magnificent journey to get to the other side of anything, and that's that's kind of just Walter Hill. And when you look at his filmography, that's why he's a great writer. It's not it doesn't have to be this overly the world is at stake like we're getting in every film nowadays. It could literally just be, hey, I gotta get three miles away and the world is gonna try to stop me.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Yeah, yeah. No, that's a good that's a great point. That's a really great point. Um I so we get the we get the kidnap, right? Village people come in, kidnap the rock singer, uh Wilm Fos got the got the cow the hair the cowhorn hair, and then Van Volkenberg's like, well, better call the equalizer, better call the farm boy equalizer, and let me let me write out a uh uh type right out a letter to him. And then uh I I love the the of course it's got that great introduction to Tom Cody where he shows up, sits down, he's having coffee, here comes the gang, and you get that great butterfly knife scene where he whips the butterfly knife and Cody just grabs it and then smacks the shit out of him. Puts a butterfly knife, whips it back up, puts it back in his hand and goes, try again, and then just it just there's a series of just slaps where he's just smacking the shit out of him.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Oh, that must have inspired us, I think. I think so too. Oh my god, I think it's because you saw this before, but it's very Bruce Lee-ish, you know. Like, what was that? We need total concentration. Although that's probably Kentucky Fried movie, but you still know where I'm coming from.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

Um so the but the guy who the first guy who busts in the restaurant, the leader of the gang, he looks like the lead singer from The Pod People. Right? And and I just wanted him to say Oh, that guy from uh pieces and uh the pod people, right? Yeah, I wanted to say he looks like you know, he was gonna somebody was gonna ask him how the support was gonna go, it stinks. You know what I mean? Uh but fuck, I love that. I do love that introduction scene. It's it's uh it's a very cool way to introduce Tom Cody as nobody to mess with.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yep. Yeah, I also liked seeing Deborah Van Volkenberg in the movie because it's like I thought you would be a big fan here at this podcast, all roads keep leading back to Too Close for Comfort. I mean, we were just talking about point blank last week, and that composer did the music for Too Close for Comfort. But uh Oh, uh it was just it was just cool to see her in this movie right from the beginning. And and and speaking of it being in the same universe as the Warriors, is she the same character years later, or is she related to that other? Good question. That's a great question.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Sand thick in your head there. Yeah, it's a great cast. I mean, you've got I mean, buried in the buried in the four duo guys is Robert Townsend and Kyle, uh what's his name? I can't remember his last name, but they're they're they're top, top not notch actors. They're so good, yeah. Yeah, Daly showing up and each Daly just randomly showing the fuck up, and then you've got Oscar Linux Amy and Madigan, Oscar winner Amy Madigan roaming through this friggin' film like a badass. Like, wow, that's uh that's been a long time, 40 years there. Plus Bill Paxton, plus Lee Ving, plus it's a great cast, it's just a killer cast.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Every scene it's another face that you recognize, or a voice if you're a fan of Rugrats, but yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

I met E.G. Daly, and the first thing I said to her was you sang the opening, you sang the theme song to Better Off Dead, and she gave me the weirdest look and went, Yes, I did. I did. I remember that. I just wanted to point that out.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Uh the composer of this movie was Ry Cooter. Rai Cooter! You might remember him from doing the music for the border when we covered that movie a few months back. But this is definitely embracing the whole rockabilly aspect where you almost think it's gonna turn into another song that you know, but it's just just different enough to be an original.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Well, yeah, one bad stud is just different enough that you won't get sued over it.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

True different enough. Rye did a whole bunch with Walter Hill, too. Oh, Diddy. Okay. He did Southern Comfort, I think he did Brewster's Million Millions. Um I think he did one or two others as well. Yeah, some of the bigger ones. Brewster's Millions. I forgot Walter Hills.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

That dude has done so many great movies. We'll have to we'll have to have a a Walter Talkin' Hill.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Yeah, seriously. Uh did did the Cody character give you like a Stallone vibe? Like you could I could almost picture Sylvester Stallone playing the Michael Paret part in a way. Because he was lifted out of Cobra. His delivery, and yeah, that kind of the stilted I am going to give my line and then I'm going to beat you, you know. I just I enjoyed it, but I kept thinking I could see like in an alternate universe the Stallone in this.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Well, and if I remember right, I think he was meant to be like a a new action hero of a trilogy. I I uh sh ashamedly did not get enough time to dive in to get all my facts straight. But if I remember right, he was meant to be like the stranger, I think is what they were calling him, or the the no name stranger. Or something like that. And it was meant to be a trilogy, but uh, of course, the film did not do well. Um, I'm sure we'll get to that point. But uh yeah, it it it kind of failed spectacularly and is really only built up acclaim in the decade since because it truly is just an enjoyable time. But uh I get it.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

Yeah, 84. I mean, this is this this this thing had the unfortunate um you know, it was born in 84, right? And 83 to 85 is some of the I mean, cinematically for the 80s, you get some of the great stuff. I mean, you this is this is tough to compete. This thing needed its own little pocket to not compete with, I think, to really capture. It went to home video and it did really well. It went to cable and it did really well. It was a I think it was a sleeper hit, uh uh type of movie where there were tons of those in the 80s where they'd bomb in theater, hit the friggin' hit the video market, and people would pick them up and realize they were good. You know, sometimes the Hollywood the studio system didn't market them well or didn't have the confidence in them, and sometimes they just didn't do well, and the people who really liked them went to video on them. I feel like this is one of them.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Or maybe it's just me, maybe it was I I'm sure the hit song helped bring a little notice to it as well. I can dream about you.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Yeah, that was probably the biggest part of the whole movie. Is uh and I remember my mom going, uh, what do you mean he's not black? And I was like, Um no, Dan Hartman, uh because when the music video came out on MTV, it's a white guy, right? And everybody's like, What my mom's like, what do you mean he's black? What can I tell you, mom? Everybody's lip syncing. Yeah. Um the rescue mission makes very little sense. Like, I I mean it just it just makes very little sense.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Like over, and then there's a half hour of the movie left. I'm like, Yes, the movie be over? Yeah, it's real enjoyed, but the pacing is a little odd. It's a little weird, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Because you've still got a lot to do. Well, you still have to have him come after her, you still have to fight him to the death, and then you still have to have your big ending, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:55

I guess that's better than it all typically happening all at once, right? The end of the movie would be we rescued her, I fought the guy, the movie ended. So at least they did a little something different here. I think our other movie did kind of the same thing too, a little bit where it subverts the expectations where you're like an hour in and go, Wait a minute, what? Now what's gonna happen? But we'll get to that one in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Well, and I was excited. We'll we'll talk about it, but I was excited when we chose these two films together because I kind of feel like the weak points of Streets of Fire, the second one does a lot better, and it might be a little bit of the opposite there as well.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Yeah, similarities. They're almost like neo-westerns in a way, both of them.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Yeah, very much so.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Stranger wanders into town, and it reminds me of that bad day at BlackRock.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

I I wonder if the gun, uh oh, what do they call the guy on the set who's in charge of the guns? The armorer. I wonder if the armorer got a deal on 3030s. Because my fucking god, there's no shotguns in this movie, there's no machine guns in this movie, it's 30. Everybody's got a damn uh John Wayne 3030s. Are you trying to keep part of the 50s? I I think that, and I also think you're right. I think it's a neo-western, and I think that Hill's leaning into that with the 3030s. Like, no, no, no, I just want like I want Western type of guns. I don't want machine guns. I want these, you know, I want these, you know, that type of thing. Because when here comes Bill Paxson and all the guys at the very end of the movie rushing out, and it's like, damn, that's a lot of freaking 30-30 rifles. There must have been 40 or 50 of them, I think, on camera at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

Well, and the sound and the visual of all of them cocking those at the same time is very powerful and not something that would have been the same with the little of a shotgun. And cinematically, man, they made the right choice in that scene. That's true.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Yeah, that's absolutely yeah, and it doesn't, I guess it doesn't really work if everybody's like putting a clip in their machine gun and then it does, it's different, huh?

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Yeah. Well, and if they're shooting pellets, there's gonna be a lot of fallout around that area.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

But yeah, that rescue mission's weird. It's it's just like Amy Madigan sneaks into the bar, she grabs a dude, knocks him out, and then sneaks into, and then very easily just creeps into the main uh room where everybody's playing poker, all the leaders are playing poker, shoots a dude, holds everybody at gunpoint, and here comes Tom Cody. Because first, well, first, of course, he creates a diversion by shooting all the bikes right outside with his 30-third with his special 30-30. And then he goes running into the bar, and immediately within two turns up the stairs, he's found her, cut her loose, and they're out the door. Yet at the same time, it's the most hectic editing where it's just like it's just it amongst all this, it's just motorcycles and explosions and a punk girl dancing on a bar and and the right the band going, and it's just it's it's wild, it's very, very chaotic.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

They're almost comic book-ish before they were doing those. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

I I mean I like it. It's just weird.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

But yeah, it has a good pace. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

It it feels very propulsive. Uh, there's not really a moment in this movie where you're even languishing for a few moments. And in that point, one of the things that I've always compared this to, funny enough, because when you look at it, you don't know when it's supposed to be set theoretically. But my in my mind, I've always paired this with Dick Tracy. It is so uh like noir, neon, comic book-ish with a very just catapulting down a hill the entire time, sort of editing pace. And they both have that very similar trajectory, too, where they kind of failed on launch and got a cult status. And I kind of think this might be the one of the reasons why. Sure, uh they're they're unique, but that doesn't really work in a theatrical sense in the 80s because people wanted these big brand new adventurers like the Goonies that they can go see. They wanted an ET, they wanted a Star Wars, they wanted Indiana Jones. You can't market any of the Dick Tracy or Streets of Fire like those because there's nothing that is anywhere remotely like that. Nobody has seen Streets of Fire like this, even though it looks like the Warriors, it's not because it's set in the 50s and the 80s. It is a musical, it's a rock fable, it's not something that people have been seeing. I mean, I say that as I'm wearing a Phantom of the Paradise shirt, but that that wasn't a massive hit either. I mean, it's one of those things where you're you're you're hitting a niche crowd and you're just hoping that your your your stone rolling down the hill gathers moss built of fans for the next 40 years, and it thankfully it has. I think it has, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

That description fits uh top secret as well. 1984 was set in the 50s, but the 80s at the same time, didn't do that well theatrically, got a clean link.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um the the I go back to the color. I I love the colors of the film, I love the color grading of the film. Uh whoever shot it shot the fuck out of it. It looks great. You know, the production design's spot on. I think Walter really had a he had a really good handle on all that stuff. He had a very clear vision of what he wanted, and he got it on film, and it looks great. Like it really, really looks good. Um, but we're 47 minutes in, and suddenly the characters need to take a fucking walk. So they take a walk. Well, what are we gonna do when they take a walk? I know, we'll shoot a fucking music video. Thank you, Walter, because this is the 80s. And this movie has probably four fucking music videos in it.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

The opening, I can dream about you, her big ending song, and then this this other song with the walking where she's all melancholy and fucking singing about your Tom Cody and you know all sad, romantically sad. It's so 80s, it's just fucking you watch this and you're they don't no other decade made movies like they don't make them like this. They don't put fucking six fucking music videos in the middle of a 90-minute movie, man. It's amazing. I missed it. Same. Ed Bagley Jr. How the hell did Ed Bagley Jr. make it into this movie?

SPEAKER_01 29:36

He had a free day.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

Of all the weird, just like random cameo. I'll play the I'll play the um the hobo who uh is a obviously drug addict and uh who's a smart ass. I'll put that's who I'll play.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Okay, it's could you just put some mud on my face? That'd that'd be great.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

And so then we collect all everybody, right? And so we collect E.G. Daly, and there's Robert Townsend and the and the group, right? Now we're all on the bus, and now here's now we're on our adventure. Or fighting the cops, you know, or you know, pulling guns on the cops and you know, all that shit, and fighting the cops to get to where we need to go. It's very, it's very adventure, I think. That's the part where I think where you get your little 80s adventure piece, right? You put everybody together and they're on the bus and they're off trying to get their thing going. I do think it slows down third act. Um, you know, why is he sending her away? Is he trying to run? You know, it's this weird moment where he sends her away, he gets on the the subway, and you're like, where the hell is he going? Is he running away? Is he not? There's a fire, what the hell? Okay, oh good, they're gonna fight. Right? Like you're like, okay, cool, they're gonna fight. Right on, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Gotta do something to keep it moving.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Do you think he uh do you think Walter Hill's referencing the searchers with the biker game? Or not the searchers, but um the Marlon Brando movie the with the wild one? Wild ones, sorry. The wild ones feels like maybe there's a little bit of that in there.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Yeah, that makes sense, actually. But much like uh remember Space Truckers, it it kind of feels like we wrapped things up, but we got like 15 minutes left. But I I I enjoy it, but I did think it was, you know, a little strange with that. But pacing earlier, it probably makes it better though.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

Yeah. Pacing gets a little weird in that third act, I think.

SPEAKER_00 31:29

In the odd dialogue throughout, but that's on purpose, right? That's that very comic book-ish, you know, almost comic strip dialogue. Where can you can you think of another room if you're Rick Moranis plays an asshole? I can't think of many movies where he doesn't play somebody who's trying to be funny. So that was a nice change of face. Yeah, he's great at us. When I saw him, I knew I hadn't seen the movie before because I'd remember that.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Lee Ving gets to punch Bill Paxton and Rick Moranis in the face in this movie. It must be nice to be Lee Ving.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

And Rick Moranis says, it's the shits, I think, four times. It's the shits.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

Uh I love it. We get that uh we get that end scene where you know Willem and everybody shows up and all the pulling on all their bikes and all that stuff for the big fight, and it's just this sea of leather daddies, you know, just ever there's just so many of them where you're still. That was the original working title, I think. Sea of leather daddies. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. And then here comes Tom in his country clothes, you know, fucking slipping off the suspenders. He's the cowboy, yeah. Well, he just finished, you know, um drilling the back 40, playing playing the wheat. Now he's gotta get you know, now he's gotta take care of a fucking weird horn-haired devil dude with but vinyl daddy with these fucking overalls. This I love this movie, it's so goddamn. He's gotta make weight.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

You've got to fight.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

Yeah, like that's like, and he's like, and that's the other weird thing where he's like, he admits he's not proficient in the weapon. He's just like, I just thought these would be cool to try and kill each other with.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Well, and yes, we talked about Michael Poray earlier, but this scene with him is by far the silliest scene to me because my God, Willem Dafoe is struggling. He is fighting his ass off, and Michael Pere, there's not an ounce of acting in his cheeks in any way at all.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

I love that great scream he gives, Willem gives, and then as he comes at him like, oh god, if I saw that face coming at me in a fight, I'd probably shit my pants and run. That is a scary demon face. This is a green goblin coming out. No, that's a that's a New York City sidewalk face, is where away from me.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

That's what that is. The face a landmother could love.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

Like and subscribe. Yeah. Um, it's cool, it's stylish, it's very 80s. In the end, the third act's kind of wonky. Um and it and it has some trouble until it gets to that big fight finale at the end, and then it really and then it really smooths and and and kind of perfectly closes the door to itself on its way out.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Throughout even through the that third act, you still look up and go, whoa, there's only 10 minutes left. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

Walter's smart. He kept it to 90 minutes. You know, he he cut he cut all the fat. I I mean I could probably find a few snips here and there to make, right? If I was being really if I was being really tough about it, but I mean, I don't think you could get this thing down to 125 or so, maybe 126 at the most. And even then I think you'd lose a little bit of atmosphere and a little bit of some of the coolness of the movie. You really got the pacing right.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

There was an R-rated cut originally, apparently. So I'd love to see that. A couple more minutes somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Oh, I'm sure I'm sure he shot. I'm sure he when he put this thing together, he probably had two hours, 230 or something, and then went through and went, all right, you know, we gotta cut this down and make it this is 84, bro. Plus, if you cut them down to 90 minutes, you get the extra run in the theater, right? True. Plus drive-ins. That was still a big thing. Well, that's a good call, too. That's a very good call. Yep, I didn't even think about that. But yeah, I mean, I I know having run a theater for almost seven years, that those shorter movies you get you get five runs. You know, you get a two-hour movie, you get four runs, maybe. You know, you get a 90-minute movie, an 85-minute movie, you can get those those five runs. You've got the opportunity across multiple thousands of theaters to make more dollars, you know. And unfortunately, film is a business.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Unfortunately for Walter Hill it has always been. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

I and you know, maybe that's that's the true art of it, is being able to negotiate the business and and still be a still be an art artist, right? And still be a great artist. You know, Walter Hill and Spielberg and these guys. That's what they did. They figured out how to and I think also the system's smart enough to know, like, well, these guys are kind of the best of the best, and maybe we should kind of get out of their way a little bit, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:58

What do I know? True. What do you think, Mark? You got anything else? That's the name of your uh upcoming biography. What do I know?

SPEAKER_02 36:06

Y'all suck, but what do I know?

SPEAKER_00 36:07

No, I you know, I I enjoyed it. Very interesting cast. You know, you talk about these Nexus movies where you can Kevin Bacon game connect virtually everybody to it. Here's another one where it's like, hey, we're all in a movie together? That's for that alone. You gotta check it out.

SPEAKER_02 36:24

Yep. Yeah. Um, Rick Rosovich is in this movie. He plays, he's I mean, this guy's in Top Gun a yeah a year later. Uh as as uh I think he's Iceman's Rio. Okay. I can't remember. I think I I think he is Iceman's Rio in Top Gun. So he, I mean, there's this, like you said, Nexus, these so many excellent actors who did a lot of other stuff in this film.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

So you can tie it to Top Secret. The Fal Kilmer connection there. See. See, again, neck again, two, what is that, three stages as well? Two stages? Well, what do you give it? Uh I give it a three. Three out of five. I I got a kick out of it. I feel like if I watch it more, I'm probably gonna find more things to enjoy, and then the rating will probably go up by the time we get to the recap. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Ryan we think. I am a much warmer. I I'm all the way up at a four and a half on this one. Uh the second and third act, I I I think the end of the second act into the third act is the only weak spot for me. And even then, I think the story itself is good. I think the hard part is that knowing knowing how you're shaping the ending of this sort of makes it uh nigh impossible to go from what we had set up in the second act to get there in a way that leaves this under an hour 40. And if they if they would have fleshed out that story, it would have just completely halted the pacing, which is probably the most important part of this film. And when when you start the film in such a cinematic musical way, you have to keep that energy up the entire time. Um, otherwise people are gonna start to get bored. And it's very, very smart of him to bookend it the way he did because those two scenes are impeccably shot, they are remarkably great sounding, uh, they look beautiful. You end with the classic driving off into the sunset sort of feeling. And I don't know, it's just uh to me, it is it's exactly what I'm missing in 2026 films. It is it's got that substance, it's got proper lighting, it's got a great ensemble of not huge names, but eventually will be huge names. And in 1984, I am sad and embarrassed that we saw this as less than.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

Good call. All right, right on. Um, I'm kind of in the middle. I think I'm bouncing between a three and a half and a four. Um, mainly because I've been given a lot of fours out lately, and I don't want to I don't want to see like I'm just freely dealing them out here. But I I do think this is I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna go three and a half, but I'm probably when our review is gonna go to four, I think. I I mean I hadn't seen it in probably 15 years. I've seen it a bunch, but I haven't seen it, I haven't really sat down and watched it like this in about 15 years, and it just struck me on how like I it just caught me right away. And yeah, there was that lag in the third where I'm like, oh yeah, okay. So because he gets the girl and you kind of feel like the movie's supposed to end, but no, you there's more to come. And there is just a little lag there, but then it boom, it picks up right away again.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

So um back of breath, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:19

Yeah, and I yeah, a little bit. And I think you're right. That ending, I I do love that ending scene. I love the the lyrics of the ending song. The lyrics of the ending song are perfect to the film and perfect to describe Tom and her and her and why they're not gonna be together and why it's gonna move. So I just thought that was really perfect. Um three and a half, but I'm probably gonna go four, to be completely honest.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

If I remember right too, that ending song was made like over a weekend for the film, and they had to go in and rewrite things to make it work because it was so much better than the original plan, or something like that. Interesting. It completely shaped the way that this film was felt for a lot of people. And I mean, it it is sort of the iconic part of this entire film, which has all kinds of iconic parts, but it is that song.

SPEAKER_02 40:03

It's a great emotional, the last big emotional moment of the film. It really is, and uh it's really perfectly well done. Perfectly done. Andrew Laszlo is the guy who shot this, and he shot the shit out of this fucking film. That's all I can have to say about it. Pardon my uh French on that, but Laszlo, great job, man. Beautiful, just absolutely gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Yeah. Which brings us to so we get some pretty interesting indies around here, and here is another perfect example of small sets, small cast, pot boiler. A really great example of what to do with limited resources, as we have discussed before and love around here. When somebody's like, I got, you know, just a handful of actors, I got a couple sets, it's a basic idea, and bam. Yeah. So what is last stop in Yuma County, Cliff?

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Last stop in Yuma County. Uh 2023, rated R, one hour and 30 minutes. Again. Uh, while stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop, a traveling salesman is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty or cold hard steel to protect their bloodstained fortune. This is written and directed by Francis Gallupi, stars Jim Cummings, Faison Love, Jocelyn Donahue. Let me get you a storyline here. While stranded at a rural Arizona restaurant, travel it's the same thing. Um, so basically, so that's your uh storyline. So and and honestly, that's kind of all you need to know. Anything more that you know might kind of ruin the film for you. There's a lot of you you don't want to know how it's gonna work out. You don't want to watch the podcast right now, watch the movie and come back because let the film because we're gonna talk about it, but this is the type of film where you don't want to know anything, you want to let the film play out and surprise you.

unknown 41:47

Right.

SPEAKER_00 41:48

Am I tripping, or was like there's a same a similar coffee scene in both movies, or was I just like misremembering? Like, I what you want cream in your coffee? No, I want black. And I'm like, did that happen at Streets of Fire, or am I just having a glitch in the matrix here? Probably it's a trope for a reason.

SPEAKER_02 42:05

Did you guys catch the um did you guys catch the Magnum Force uh homage in that?

unknown 42:11

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

There's a yeah, uh actual scene where she puts the she puts the sugar in his coffee, she puts the sugar in the sheriff's coffee, and he has to take sugar in his coffee. That's that's literally Harry Callahan coming in going, Well, I come in here every day to get a cup of coffee, and I don't make sugar in my coffee, and she put sugar in my coffee. So, oh there's something fucking going on here, and you know. That's why she wrote under that lid, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

At first I thought it was, you know, set in modern times, but as you go into it, you realize this is like 73. The same as Streets of Fire.

SPEAKER_01 42:43

When is it set? We have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

There's a 73 license plate, there's an old square television, there's no cell phones, there's ashtrays and smoking and looking at a newspaper, and I'm like, this is cleverly kind of out of time in a way.

SPEAKER_02 42:58

Yeah. I think by the cars and by the license plates, you can you can get a good grip on where where things were. I thought it was 80s. And I was like, I think this is 70s.

SPEAKER_01 43:07

I also think it's being intentionally vague to keep an atmosphere too, which is just well that's that's the reality of these smaller towns like Yuma County in Arizona, is you've got these smaller towns that are sort of pitched from their own period. This could be easily seven years later, and people just fucking don't pay their registration and don't upgrade their cars, and it's the last time things have been renovated.

unknown 43:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

Fuck, we went to um Baxter Springs, was that it? Kansas. Uh we went out to that festival. Marty and Jeff and I were at a film festival in far northeast Oklahoma City and or Oklahoma, and I and we re I realized, dude, we're like two miles from the Kansas border, and Baxter Springs is five miles away. And we were the town we're in doesn't have the greatest food selection. So we decided to go to Baxter Springs. The Kansas City is any better. And turns out that it's one of the early spots that Frank James robbed. And it's just like that. It's a small town, and you can see a couple new restaurants, but it's the same kind of pickups from the nineties and two thousands and the same sort of stuff. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Like the car stereo, even you know, turning the dial and I'm thinking, wow, when was the last time I turned a dial in a car stereo? Takes you back a bit. It's it reminds me a bit of the Hateful Eight. That's what I've read, but I never saw that movie, so I don't really know in its in its structure.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

I don't mean by any by not by the story, but in its structure where we bring we bring all these people together into a central location and then they all kill each other. And you have a survivor, right? So that part was I was like, oh okay that's very hateful eight. That's interesting. And I think this movie, that's what this movie does is it borrows from a lot of other movies and makes its own movie out of it, right? So you get these nods, kind of like Hill doing the the the motorcycle gang nod, right? You get these nods all throughout the film which I really enjoyed.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

But not to where it felt like it was unoriginal. The Survivor I thought that was I'm like oh that guy's gonna get killed first. He's the red shirt right he's the deputies like and Barbara Crampton are the only two people left alive at the end of the movie. I'm like a movie you you tricked me because I thought that guy was a goner man and any other movie he would have been the first to go usually so I like I like how they flipped that.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

Well and that's why I completely love so much about this movie. All of it is just subverting expectations when you least expect it. And the best part is that the the movie sets you up for the increased tension the entire time because they show you that the fuel truck everybody's waiting on was wrecked at the very beginning of the movie during the credit sequence.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

I didn't even catch that till the end and then I realized oh that's right.

SPEAKER_01 45:42

You know so that that entire time if you are keen or watch it again you realize all of this this tension is already ratcheted up because of what you know but not what anybody else knows. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:54

Built in built-in bomb waiting to go off I got some hell or high water vibes in there because you know there's always the smart one and always the impetuous kind of dumb one you know who's gonna ruin things for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 46:11

Got gotta call out Richard Brake by name as well. It's another one that uh that's a character actor that God, first off, I I get to meet him next month at a convention I'm just thrilled he is an incredible actor somebody that every single time he's on scene just like uh Willem Defoe what we just watched he's got one of those faces you cannot look away from. Yeah yeah he does he definitely does.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

We saw him at a con a few years ago we didn't get to talk to him but he seemed very approachable and and everybody seemed real chill out talking to him so I bet that'll be a good meet you know I think it's I think it's hilarious like early on when the you know when the the kind of the hapless deputy comes in and and he's walked into this tense situation and he's his his his um senses are so dull he's such a bad cop that he's not picking up on any of it.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

Like he's like oh let's what's you walk into a room where people are just about to fight you can smell it like you can feel it. There's a palpable energy in the room and he's just like well how's everybody doing he's Barney fighter right yeah and so but he walks over to that couple while he's waiting for the coffee and he's talking to them and they're like well I'm from Texas too where whereabouts Waco and oh yeah my gr my son's out there and he's leading a church where he's singing and playing guitar and it's like your son's David Caresh that's that's who your son is. That's what you're referring to. That's hilarious. So funny I love the little buried things throughout this film. Same pale Barbara Crampton's a little weird to me though I have to say it the makeup she just looked like she had no blood in her face and I've met that girl in person. She's beautiful it's just like this is but I I I wonder if she was like kind of you know pale me out make give me the weird flip from the 70s you know she did I wonder I I wonder if she did I bet you she did she seems like she'd be really into stuff like that I just love that she's still all in on indies like if you've got a good script she will happily work on almost anything.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

We did suitable flash and it was we we really enjoyed that one too that was a lot of fun yeah really a lot of fun it's not magnum force it's sudden impact damn it my notes I checked my notes sudden impact's the one where he does the the takafy thing well and there's an actual scene where they're showing a a scene from a western in there as well which is a very obvious nod to the kind of situation that they're sitting in the the mechanic isn't over the the garage side and they walk in and he's just sitting there watching Western very much sets the tone.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

Mm-hmm he's got a good Tarantino moment in there with the with the couple in the car and the music playing and she's got her feet up and all that there's a that that that felt very uh deathproof to me very very deathproof where it's like oh it's that scene where they're all driving and she's like put the song on she's got her feet up and I saw critics say it reminded them of true romance a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

Sure I can see that yeah especially the scene where she's uh shooting the can or he's shooting the can shoot the cans and she's telling you yeah yeah yeah yeah I like that she's smarter than he is yeah also felt a little bit like Key Largo you ever seen Key Largo?

SPEAKER_02 49:16

No uh Key Largo's Humphrey Bogart um and and um oh uh Martin Balsam I think balsam and then there's also uh Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson thank you yeah so they basically Edward G. Robinson is a bad guy um there's a drifter there's a girl who runs the hotel there's a family who runs a hotel they all get caught up it's in Florida in the Keys and they all get caught up in a hurricane they all have to stay in the hotel together right he's hiding from the cops and uh you know uh why am I struggling so much? This is freaking weird anyway it's it reminded me of that where it's like everybody coming together there's a shootout there's a lot of suspicion there's a lot of tension back and forth it felt very key Largo weird.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

Oh so uh Jonathan Proudstar love him so I've I think I met him once at I think it was the Chandler Film Festival because he's friends with our friends because uh he he's worked with a local I think or been in our movies and he's a local guy here in Tucson and you see him at the bookstore I work at from time to time I'm actually have to go up to him and talk to him again and be like hey shit I should talk to you some more man because you know this person and this person and I know him too so it was kind of cool you know show up in the movie like oh look that's awesome I love seeing you know somebody Tucson getting out there and doing stuff you know yeah it's awesome I can't remember seeing phase on love in another dramatic role usually he's true yeah usually he's a comedic actor he did a great job I thought he did a really really good job he's almost unrecognizable yeah I didn't see big worm you know I wasn't thinking about that's exactly it where it's big worm yeah and he's a funny dude I've been I've been watching him for forever I mean he's been around in in movies and on the comedy scene forever I just didn't I didn't expect him to be that good in a in a dramatic early was fantastic. So you run a company with the director of this film so you probably have a little more insight on this movie I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

I mean there's there's a bunch of stuff the the production behind this was uh a a huge uh what is the best way to say it there there's a bunch of things that went great and it was a lot of fun for the people that made it but there's a lot of stuff that was a shit show as well just like many films. Yeah the big thing though it literally the big thing though is uh the producer of this film literally had to sell his house to get this film distributed. Oh my and that whole story uh got a documentary made about it that is doing the circuits right now called sell your house and I I love that you can watch this movie then watch a documentary about the making of this movie which is more about like for people that like us that you know we we sure we've heard all of the behind the scenes shit before but to hear a story about somebody loving and knowing a project is destined for greatness so much that you're willing to put your house up as collateral is a big deal especially when you're not the filmmaker when you're not the lead when you're not the studio backing it you're literally a producer on the film and it's just like fuck it we got to get this movie out there and here's how we're gonna do it. And that's a big deal to me. But yeah Francis is amazing. It's the movie that got him on the the mind of everybody out there. He went and made a couple short films before this got recognized got a little bit of funding for this film uh pulled off something that which I think is kind of a minor miracle with how this movie is so tense throughout on such a small budget and now he literally just wrapped filming the next evil dead movie and I mean how do you how do you complain about life after that point?

SPEAKER_02 52:53

You don't you don't good job Francis Francis here's my favorite part of your movie um there's six cars in the parking lot right and at one point I'm like get a goddamn hose get a gas can and siphon the fucking gas out of those five cars and get the hell out of here and what happens five minutes later what happens five minutes later he runs out there and I'm just like yes finally somebody who's smart in a fucking movie finally it's so rare it's so rare because usually the in you have to you have to work with the film's internal logic and it breaks you know to get it to get the thing done or to do whatever to make the premise happen. And here it's like he does the smart thing he goes he drains the gas and then you know of course other things happen that keep him from being able to get away but he does the smart thing right he he does what you should do in that situation which is take everybody else's gas and get the hell out of there.

SPEAKER_01 53:47

Love it Francis really well done sir yeah this is one of those movies I don't know that there's any bad decisions I I mean there's a couple I would agree with that there's a couple stupid moments from the criminals and from people that are well they have to have but bad filmmaking decisions don't know.

SPEAKER_02 54:01

No.

SPEAKER_01 54:02

Right absolutely not things like the sugar things like the siphoning things like uh deciding hey everybody's dead I'm I might as well take the money like nobody's gonna catch it those are all kind of logical moments in this film that all holds up to certain tests that you could hold it to I kept thinking they're gonna know that that's his knife and that woman the catch him but you know we had to end up worrying about that the way that it played out.

SPEAKER_00 54:26

You know I thought the knife salesman like oh we're gonna discover that he's like a crook too or he has some backstory because it it gives you so vague like maybe he's telling the truth but he's not but then they end up subverting that expectation again. It's like no he's just the dude who landed at the wrong place at the wrong time and then he made a few smart slash dumb choices or m made them too late perhaps but I mean his car was going to break down anyway so I guess there was no way out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:57

Yeah. But it's interesting he's got he's got two choices right he's got he he he's there's a moment where he has to he can step across the line and at that point he's a suspect. Or he can stay where he is wait he knows that eventually somebody's gonna could probably show up or he can take the gas and drive somewhere without the money and he's fine but it's the money he takes the money steps across the line and that's when fate gets him and he killed two people so but yeah he did he did. Now the girl was going to kill him so I don't feel bad about that at all.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

Like you know but then the whoops oh no the sheriff yeah yeah it's like oh that's good we're getting dark here and then you know the cop showing up and having the moment finding his wife dead and I'm like damn this movie's like where's the tone going? And then the next thing you know he's screaming you killed my wife and boom and I'm like I didn't mean to but kind of giggle a little bit because of the almost silly nature of it. It's very satisfying but at the same time you're getting kind of that okay don't don't it's like the other movie it's not meant to be taken completely serious. You're supposed to be on a ride here a bit so it's kind of like okay I see what you're doing. It's almost odd levity or you know dark humor in a way yeah I wanted him to get away with it.

SPEAKER_02 56:17

You know I I didn't I didn't like the fact that he blew himself up or caught himself a fire or whatever. I wanted him to get away with it. Yeah that's that bad money right you know you steal the money like in psych he once you cross the line you have to do you have to be dealt your your proper justice.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

And then they say that that guy reminds them of Norman Bates and it's funny because we just watched Psycho a few weeks ago and that's about stealing the money and running but in this movie Norman Bates takes the money and run.

SPEAKER_01 56:43

Sort of go on take the money and run Norman of course the uh the the fuel truck that they're all waiting on is what ends up being the the capper to the story which is also just perfect.

SPEAKER_02 56:57

Crampton made some great faces in this film. Oh yeah she made some she just really went for like she just really went for it's like I'm gonna ham this shit up and she did it was great. It was really really great perfect choice. I really enjoyed it I like the cars too that that red car with the curved back window you don't see a lot of those you know that that type of glass doesn't get made anymore that's that that type of glass is very hard to make um you know car companies wouldn't even really bother with it nowadays and if they do it just be a windshield but that beautiful back curve I think as a Pontiac leader Lamans maybe or uh um yeah it was gorgeous I really like those cars that Toyota Corolla was fantastic you know they were just really they looked they looked apart I thought it was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 57:40

Have you ever been to Yuma?

SPEAKER_01 57:42

Uh not only have I been to Yuma I've slept in Yuma many, many many times before so yeah to to peek behind my curtain uh I'm a from a family of railroaders I was a railroad for years as well and Yuma's a big um station spot for uh Union Pacific like you worked for the railroad I was a conductor on the railroad for years no shit yes sir okay all right interesting my dad was my dad was an engineer my uh my grandfather was an engineer my uncle was a trainman yeah we I've got probably seven or eight all relatives my my got my grandfather was a union president for like 34 years.

SPEAKER_02 58:17

Wow okay good deal my dad worked for Amtrak that was the last thing he did was he worked uh scheduling he was IT and backwards stuff for scheduling and things like that yeah um and I took good care of him yeah I'd love to see more passenger trains in the country you know what I mean I've I just I'd love to see the I'd love to see people have the ability to get around by train like you know they're they're showing a big soccer match in Australia and there's no parking lot around the stadium. There is but it's not like in America when you go to Walking it's it's 12 miles because the trains drop you off a quarter of a mile away there's just there's a station close enough for walking distance so everybody just takes a train and walks. Like why why aren't we doing that?

SPEAKER_01 58:58

It's it's silly well because we're a car culture and Americans you know well we're owned by billionaires and that means they need to keep making that money so train trains do not do that for them. Don't don't listen to that government it's not true we love you um I I really enjoyed this I if it feels uh it feels like it pulls from a lot of different cool movies and a lot of it does a lot of fun things but it eventually it pulls it all together and makes it its own uh and it's very satisfying I really like that glad to hear it yeah I I think this is a almost a pitch perfect script I think this is an incredible debut to show what a filmmaker can do and uh would really recommend for anybody out there that's looking to get into the industry as a filmmaker itself find something like this and it and if you can't write the script like this find a really great writer and become a a duo make an amazing movie that is uh shockingly well done for next to no money and if you can do that you've got an in guaranteed well that's what we keep trying to do over here uh but our last two movies even though they're kind of comedies they got some pretty decent marks and now they're worldwide on streamers uh maybe one day it would be nice to get another physical release of them you know but we did a a little uh independent run last year just a hundred copies but yeah yeah sold pretty well conventions cool what uh you guys got any other comments uh uh you know we we barely said her name uh really want to shout out Jocelyn Donahue she's fine this she's fantastic in this yeah yeah the whole cast is really really good there's not there's not a there's not a weak actor in this movie not at all i i mean even gene jones which everybody knows as the guy from no country from old man uh he's he's incredible in this but yeah jocelyn donohue i think is what really ties this whole thing together because she builds in so much of the tension and again no stupid decisions everything that she does is smart she she palms a knife when she needs to she um makes sure that she's doing the coffee scene exactly the way that somebody logically could try to get some help here um she is smart at sort of keeping everybody under control and not losing their head which uh in many situations that would be really easy to lose control of that yourself and yeah I I think she's the perfect sort of cross between like genre actor and really great dramatic actor that made this work I mean she's just somebody that you could trust holding this down.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:30

I like that moment where it's about to pop off and uh Richard Brake's got her and she's got that and and Gene sees that knife and he just goes honey just let's fucking do this. Like he's come on enough. She stabs him and everybody just and there's that pay delay moment right so bop bop pow you know um I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:54

Marty what do you give it I give it three and a half I I got a pretty big kick out of this one. The more you think about it the more it sits with you. You know when I first watched it a lot of I was like what what's going on here? And then you sit with it for a few days and you go well wait a minute this ties to this and so going back and watching it again it's probably going to be much like Streets of Fire where it's like oh I'm getting more out of this the second and third viewings and more people should seek this movie out. And so I when you were talking about movie that was only available on streaming was that what you were saying earlier at the time this is on Peacock.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:31

Streets of Fire is not available to stream anywhere that I found Streets of Fire you have to rent it or own it on disc. Dang did we make you rent it or did you own it on disc? I already own it over here is the 4K of Streets of Fire if we were that's right okay just making sure all right I hate to make somebody pay for it that is one of like 11000 releases I have in this room you can get a disc of of a Yuma uh not only can you I have three different releases of Yuma County I've got the Australian release the UK release and the US release um it's gotten a lot of love lots of like audio commentaries bonus features great art um I'm very excited to see his evil dead wrath and uh get to get to work on him on a on a daily basis I will say as somebody I I don't I don't know how to say this without sounding like privileged or condescending I I I'm not normally this person. This is the only time of my life I could say something cool like this as somebody who was on set for a full day of Evil Dead Wrath, people are going to love that movie. Wow. And it's one set in the 70s as well right it's supposed to it is yeah I I was I was hoping to to need to keep that as a secret for a long time then like a week after I got back from New Zealand they were like hey it's set in the 70s like okay I guess we're we're announcing that good job but yeah the the practical effects in Evil Dead Wrath are going to blow some people away which is one of the biggest things for me. I'm the Evil Dead burn was a big disappointment for me. The the CGI in the third act is atrocious and man Evil Dead Wrath they're so I don't know yet yeah it's if if you like the the new French extremity movement you're probably really gonna like the movie and I love that movement. It just didn't work for me I felt like it was Evil Dead plus new French extremity but minus like the political unrest that made that era important and so it's just sort of soulless and mean in a way that kind of stripped all of what made Evil Dead unique to begin with to me.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:25

Sounds more like demons or demani where it's just oh we're just ripping people apart for an hour and a half and there's no kind of lunch head who uh who manages to defeat everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:36

That and I guess they're they're really leaning into like a domestic violence is bad storyline, which obviously it is and we should all be against that but uh it's vi it's not even a metaphor. It's screaming at your face for an hour. So well there's nothing I love more than a horror movie that preaches at me. Well they all they all have for decades so I have no problem with that necessarily but when you can't do it through artistic means and you have to use really shitty CGI to look like a terminator ripoff at the end oh my I'm not about that life.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:08

So I'll just say seek out uh the tiny Tim classic Blood Harvest you have the poster behind you that yes blood harvest is great please I discovered that on Joe Bob's uh show a few years back nice oh man what a wild movie yeah so uh Ryan what do you what do you get it?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:29

Uh I am all in on a four if we're going quarter stars I'd probably go up to about a four and a quarter on this one. Um it it's not much that I could really say I'd fault it for it's just you can feel that it's a bit quaint and I think if anything that is more of a feature than a bug for this film. And it wasn't setting out to be a five star classic masterpiece. It was basically a proof of ability and Francis nailed that. Yeah I agree.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:56

Yeah it's like I mentioned you know he's pulling a lot of thoughts and ideas from a lot of other Movies to make this work, but he makes him his own, which I think is the mark of a true filmmaker, right? Where it doesn't feel like you've just picked an element up from a film and dropped it into your film, but you've taken the element and turned it on its head and kind of made it your own thing. He does a really good job of that. Like you said, for a proof, it's really well done. You can tell it's low budget, but it's uh uh high concept and really well made. So um, and and again, he's not trying to break any new ground with his story. He's just trying to tell a really good tense story, and he does a really good job of that. Um I'm gonna go three and a half, and I'm probably honestly again gonna go four. I'm just reluctant to give fours because I keep giving them out lately. Um but I but maybe in review I'll just be like, faggot.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:41

But three and a half is real strong for me. That's where I'm gonna watch it again. If I get to three or three and a half or four, that's four and above is like cinematic where we're talking to talk about masterpieces and and like really that type of thing. So three and a half, I think, is strong. I'll definitely I'd watch this movie again in a heartbeat. Put it on. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:56

Yeah. It's easy to. It's written in a way that you get sucked in. It's very much like if this was on TBS in 2004, everybody would say this is one of their top ten favorite movies of all time. Agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:08

Yeah, just more people need to see it, they just need to be aware of it. And hopefully we'll shed a little light on it here.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:15

Yeah.

unknown 1:07:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:17

I mean, I think probably 12, 15 people will hear this and probably go watch it.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:21

I don't know. We've been getting some larger numbers.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

We have been getting larger numbers. I should make it a joke. Thank you, dear listener. We love you. Um, so well, Brian, thanks, thanks so much for coming on the show. Yeah, yeah. Uh he was about to ask you if you had anything you wanted to plug. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:38

Too many things to plug, uh, obviously. Um, yeah, like I said, I release a magazine every month. You can check that one out. Our newest issue has uh Eraser Head on the Cover, uh, David Lynch, wonderful uh commissioned art. Um, that comes out everywhere on Amazon, literally worldwide, also on sale in uh stores in four different countries. Um, I've got uh podcast network you can check out at someone's favoriteproductions.com. Uh on that uh website, you can find all of the shows on the network, plus all of the physical media releases that we help produce around the world. Um, but probably the biggest thing that I think your audience was up would appreciate is uh coming in late August into early September. We are uh over at Antenna Releasing doing a big wide U.S. roadshow release of the documentary by Mark Pellington called This Is Buzz. Mark Pellington is the one that uh championed and made the show Buzz on MTV back in 1990, uh ran for 13 episodes and was promptly canceled because it was expensive and uh politically divisive in a way that was a little ahead of its time. Uh Mark went on, of course, to sort of pioneer the music video market in the mid-90s and then made Arlington Road and Mothman Prophecies and all kinds of other things that would shape pop culture for years. And he came back with a documentary about how Buzz was so ahead of its time and pop culture relevant. Um, we're taking this thing on the road with Pellington, with uh giant musicians coming out to moderate Q ⁇ A's, people that will surprise the shit out of you. And your audience, my audience, are kind of the core demographics people that were somewhere between 13 and 25 in 1990, people that are uh you know reminiscent on these pre-AI times, these very cultured and textured times that we had before everything feels like it suddenly just went off into like this millennial gray painted background of hellscape that we've got behind us. And uh yeah, it's uh it's a really fun documentary with a lot of faces that you'll recognize, and it'll be a great time. Um, we're doing uh free screening, very early screening, July 25th in LA uh at Beyond the Streets. It's gonna be a great event. Um, Matt Pinfield is DJing the entire day. It's a big 10-hour event, immersive experience. We're gonna be doing one in Kansas City that we've not announced yet. That's gonna be a big immersive thing. Uh we've got this 250-seat theater that Pellington's gonna be coming to, doing this full wraparound experience that's gonna be wild. Uh, but yeah, you'll be able to see this documentary all over the place. It'll eventually be on uh VOD. And I mean, I'm the physical media guy. You know it's coming to desk. Yeah, this is coming to desk, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:01

Right on.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

Cool. All right. Antenna releasing this is Buzz. Yep. Right on. Why do you want to get out of here on a quote?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:10

Uh sure. Okay. Look, Cody, you sound pretty dumb, but nobody's that dumb.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:20

Ryan, you got anything? Um both of these movies, I would say this is the shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

Is a coffin considered furniture? For my mother in law. Just get out of here, guys.