Strangers in the Alps: A Movie Podcast
Four friends are forced to seek shelter in an abandoned cabin in the alps when their road trip is unexpectedly cut short. To stave off cabin fever, they’re slashing through a pile of VHS tapes left behind. Tune in every Thursday as they argue, discuss, and enlighten each other on the movies waiting within the tapes in this podcast mysteriously set up and left behind by someone…or something…The fireplace is lit, the tv is on, and the slashing has just begun!
Strangers in the Alps: A Movie Podcast
S04E02 - Stoney Cold Robbery (Set It Off)
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The Strangers welcome special guest Jerry Howard as they comb through the case files of infamous bank robbery, and feature film, “Set It Off”! Directed by F. Gary Gray and starring Jada Pinkett, Vivica A. Fox, Queen Latifah, Kimberly Elise, and John C. McGinley.
“Set It Off” is available to rent at all major platforms!
Driven to desperation by poverty, personal tragedy, and systemic failure, four inner-city Los Angeles friends working as corporate janitors form an unlikely heist crew, turning to a string of increasingly dangerous bank robberies that ultimately threaten their survival and bonds.
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And welcome to another episode of Strangers in the Alps, a movie podcast, where every week we discuss movies in a really crazy deep ramble. Very deep. Very deep. I'm Dan.
SPEAKER_03I'm Travis. I'm Sam. I'm Frank.
SPEAKER_05And we have a special guest. Welcome, Jerry.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_05I love it when we have guests. It keeps us on our toes and it keeps us in good behavior. Right? Right, Travis? Good behavior?
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, we're it's weird. We're sitting in different seats right now. Well, yeah, this is very weird. We're sitting in different seats. I'm not used to it. I'm used to having to go.
SPEAKER_05I'm sitting in Travis's seat and I'm feeling like something bad is going to happen. So I'm traveling. I'm hanging on for deal life. I've got dad jokes galore. So anyway, let's start with our traditional Travis. Could you read the back of our VHS tape from which from which we've watched the movie?
SPEAKER_00I actually did.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god. Alright. Right on. Desperation. I can't wait. Go ahead. Desperation drives four inner city women to bank robbery in Los Angeles. Then they start mistrusting each other.
SPEAKER_04Hmm.
SPEAKER_03That's why I was like, that's not actually very, very deceiving.
SPEAKER_05That's not very deep. That's really what happens. Not at all. No.
SPEAKER_03There's like one scene where they maybe mistrust the word. Stop doing that!
SPEAKER_05Okay. Whose mic? There goes our PG 13 rating.
SPEAKER_03Um there goes our sponsors.
SPEAKER_05Okay. So let's go around, give us our pre-thoughts. Pre-thoughts, just to refresh our audience and Jerry, is just what, if you remember before you saw it the first time, if you have any like, oh, I bought whatever. I mean, we'll we'll start and then maybe you'll be able to what did you heard about this movie maybe before? Okay, I will start because it'll be easiest for me. I never heard of this movie. I was told to watch it. That's my pre-thought. There you go.
SPEAKER_03I have the same as Dan. Last week, Frank was like, Have you heard of set off set it off? I was like, What's that?
SPEAKER_01For me, same, but then when I looked at the poster, I was like, Oh, I've seen the poster before, but I've never heard of it. Shut up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's weird. Um You just made up a movie title. Yeah, I did, and then magically it was real. Um, uh I remember um in the 90s, my mom and my dad would rent a bunch of like VHS tapes. Uh as you do. Call Blockbuster. Blockbuster. This was a this was a Blockbuster rental. And I remember specifically they put it on, and at some point while watching it, they decided that it was not suitable for children, so I never got to like finish it until later when I was a teenager.
SPEAKER_03What point? Because the opening. It's only two scenes.
SPEAKER_02I missed the opening. So when I first watched it, I was like, wait, what? Yeah, that opening scene of the movie. So you didn't know the first rule. No, you know, okay, so uh I've mentioned this before. I was raised Mormon and my dad was very puritanical about like Did you get the Mormon edit? Love making.
SPEAKER_05Did you get around making at the beginning of the movie? Not at the beginning, but there was some going on.
SPEAKER_02There was some sexual some woman on woman action.
SPEAKER_05That was No, there isn't. Yes, there was a Yes there is. Yes, there is. It's a Ursula and uh quick and um They were just making out, weren't they?
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03Oh but too.
SPEAKER_02Have you ever been told that you're showing too much um too much ankle?
unknownNo?
SPEAKER_02No, okay. Like this is a serious question. Because I was told that a lot is a child.
SPEAKER_03No, Frank, this is a serious question. Did you see the Mormon edit of the movie?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Is it a Mormon? Apparently it's like it's an underground thing where there's like they go around and it's like bootlegs and it's like Mormon edits.
SPEAKER_02No, we we didn't actually, because we rented it from Blockbuster. But um it was around that time that they were like, oh yeah, no, this is not for kids. Um so we were escorted away and they finished the movie. And then I was later able to watch it and finish it, and um yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_03How long did your family keep that VHS tape?
SPEAKER_02Three months.
SPEAKER_03No, I was like, well now it's fine, they're out of business.
SPEAKER_02So Yeah, yeah, we we out lasted them, thank God. But yeah, um, I remember seeing it. Uh it's weird because it was so long ago, but I remember very specific moments. Like uh I remember a scene, very specific scene that's still one of my favorite points in the movie. And then I remember being escorted. So those are the two things.
SPEAKER_03Or are those two scenes related? No, they're not.
SPEAKER_05Sam, how about you? Or did you already do yours? Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_03Jerry's turn.
SPEAKER_05Jerry, pre-thoughts. Welcome.
SPEAKER_00Uh I well hell, thank you uh for having me. Uh I I probably, unlike everyone else, um definitely knew about Set It Off uh before Frank came to me and asked me to be on the podcast. Interestingly enough, I'd uh opposite story to your story, Set It Off is actually the first movie I ever remember seeing in my life.
SPEAKER_05Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely, yes. Um same situation when my dad rented the movie, but this was the first, like cognitively, I'm sure I saw movies prior to Set It Off. Uh, but Set It Off is the movie that has the most vivid imagery to me as a child, six or seven at the time. And um my dad, unlike your parents, he did not uh have that filter. We're watching Set It Off, boys, so that's what we're watching. So, like literally it's vivid. When you asked me this, I was like, that's funny as hell because I remember vividly uh my dad is sitting in like in his his chair, and my dad used to love these butter cookies. They have a hole in the uh center of them, and they're like shaped like a little flower.
SPEAKER_05I know those, yeah. You know those cookies?
SPEAKER_00Maniac addict. And so what he was doing while we were watching set it off. I'm six, my brother, my Irish twin brother, so he's five. Uh my dad is making him an ice cream sandwich with the cookies. He's making me an ice cream sandwich with the cookies, and he's making my brother an ice cream sandwich with the cookies while Ursula and Cleo are kissing, while uh Stoney and Nate are uh having their sex scene, while uh Cleo is getting shot up at the end of the movie. The six and five-year-old are watching and uh enjoying their ice cream sandwiches. Maiming at the time, I think this movie, because you were talking about what was it, the Exorcist before we started recording, set it off, uh is kind of one of those movies for me where uh as a six-year-old, seeing Cleo's death at the end was extremely um jarring. I'm sure. Yeah, that there's a song that plays with that that um that scene that like it's very hard for me to listen to to this day because it brings back kind of those visceral moments and like you're not knowing, like, oh my god, this is because set it off isn't fantasy in that way, it's very real, you know what I mean. So exactly um yeah. Set it off was the first movie I ever remember watching. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01How many times have you seen it since then?
SPEAKER_00Many because set it off is a cult, cult, cult, cult classic in the black community. I mean, like it's one of those movies you have had to have watched. Right. Um, it's a play, they've made a musical out of it. Um they've made a musical out of set it off since then. Wow. Yeah, yeah. It's it is a very uh cult film of the 90s for sure.
SPEAKER_02Dan, have you heard of the term hood classic? There you go. No, no, it's a classic, but from Jerry, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Um I realized after well, no, right before watching I we watched the director's cut of the film. Have you seen that version? Yes. Okay. What's what's the difference? I'm sorry we didn't ask you. What's the difference? How do I know I saw the director's cut of the film?
SPEAKER_00I'm asking. So what's the difference between like just some longer scenes that have that have played out a little bit longer than from the initial um like the release, basically? So just getting more in-depth a little bit on some of the character scenes, but uh it's not um distinctly or vastly different than the the release.
SPEAKER_03So one scene, one of the big scenes that's different though, that's not that's in the director's cut, is the scene where um after Stony attacks the police detective, um, when they're comforting her in her house, and then she's like, Oh, and then because she's like, Oh, I was gonna take a shower, and then I found his hair. That scene's not in it. Um, another scene that's I know is added to is I think it's when after their first robbery and they're watching TV and they're talking about the robbery, um, that scene is also added. And um also the scene where um where Stony when she's when they're gonna go to that like gala or like that banquet, and she goes out and the police knock on the door and they're like, oh, there's been a that scene that's not in there either.
SPEAKER_02The little moments, but I like those additions, to be honest.
SPEAKER_03For whatever I mean it doesn't quite make sense that it wouldn't be in there, but a scene for me that I was almost convinced I was like, oh, this scene's either longer or it's added in there is the whole like Godfather parody scene.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, for some reason that took me through the.
SPEAKER_00I didn't feel like it would it would have been in the original. Yeah, that's funny. Where they were sitting at the table and they were talking about the uh main rebellious Marlon Buddha and really Yeah, that yeah, that's that's for me I was thinking.
SPEAKER_03Well, I mean, for me, if I like if if I didn't know and then I had to guess someone's like, oh, what do you think a scene that was different? If you had to pick one, which one would you think? For some reason for me, that one I felt like I was like, oh, it was probably an extended scene, which it's not.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, that was in the original movie. Yeah, Cleo Menza.
SPEAKER_01I like that like it's mainly drama, but sprinkled a bit of comedy in it. It just like offsets each other. Like that scene was great, and then also just um when Cleo was like dancing around after their first robbery and then she accidentally like fired the gun. Yes. I thought those things were fun moments. Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I also like you mentioned earlier that the I I think they it's one of the scenes they added when uh the news anchors are talking about the fact that they stole ninety thousand dollars and they're like insurance fraud. I know I love that. Because what was it like eight or nine thousand dollars if they got the first?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, let's usually we go from beginning to end, right? And then we just kind of talk like it's very free-flow. We we talk about whatever comes to mind. So Dan.
SPEAKER_03Do you want to do you just want to give a brief Yeah, a brief overview?
SPEAKER_05I think Jerry should do it because he's most familiar with the movie. This is a brief, just uh just a brief so so people listening kind of know what the story is without getting into any real detail. Sure, sure. Just the big stress, like high-level broad strokes of the story.
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, I guess I'll give you um how my interpretation or how I view it. It was just it's basically um four women, South Central Los Angeles, that come together and um are friends from this community. One woman, Frankie, uh, experiences a bank robbery by some members from her community. She gets fired from her job. Stoney, which is probably Jada Pinkett Smith, which is this was a big vehicle for all of those ladies uh when it came out in the 90s, a push for them. So Jada Pinkett Smith, her character Stoney, uh, deals with uh the loss of her brother. This ignites them to decide they want to take things into their own hands and they begin to rob, go on a bank robbing spree. Uh which, as we all know, in typical film fashion, doesn't always go well.
SPEAKER_05No, it really doesn't usually ever work out well.
SPEAKER_00Typically not.
SPEAKER_03And then there's uh I think T T, I think her TT. Yeah, remember she and her, she has a like a son gets taken from child customer. Right. Right.
SPEAKER_00Uh child protective services. Because she can't, uh because she's down, you know, the she's not making enough money, because she's unable to take care of her child, uh, take care of her child's daycare. This is her impetus to uh rob the bank. And I think Cleo is just she's the one who has more of a vanity reason to rob banks. She's not she she's not uh where she wants to be in terms of her life overall. She wants to be a little bit more flashy. I think with the parallel, she wanted to be like one of the guys for for sure in the community. And so the best way for her to do that was to rob banks. So each of the four women had a reason to come together and then do this together. And it's that um that that anger that they have, each of them are holding, and then they go to rob the banks, and of course. Some of the saddest deaths on screen I've seen.
SPEAKER_01No, I like that, right. They spent a lot of time building up the characters and what made them reach that point of like, no, we need to get this robbery done. I think they did that very, very well. That's the I think for me the main point of this film is not about how it looks or whatever it is, like character-driven and the right story driven. That's what I like.
SPEAKER_03I like too how very much so you can tell like they just need the money and aren't doing because they're very much like, oh, let's go in a minute and a half, no one's gonna die. And then they even do the thing too where like I think they're gonna go to the vault or some of them, they're like, don't get greedy. Yeah, we have enough already.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but um if I could uh please this is uh I was talking about this recently, n how recently recently with a friend of mine. I think Set It Off is to me um a film about uh one of I think I've mentioned this to you at work too when we were talking about this. I think uh Set It Off is a very a subtle film about like police brutality at that time and a way to uh comment on that. That is it happens quickly, it's subtle, and then the drama of the bank robbery carries you through that because you're dealing with like the angst now, right? This is around the time like you're thinking of riots and these these sorts of things. So, how can we tell this story? How can we speak to these people who are feeling this anger, feeling this angst in the world in a way that's entertaining and acceptable? A lot of times for me, with films that overtly do this, they become a pedantic and I don't like them. I don't want to sit and watch it because it's more of uh overt police brutality. This is what you're trying to get me to feel. But what I love about set it off, especially at the time that it came out, was that it was about this on a high level, and you could easily escape that while watching the narrative. You could easily think about this is about these women, but again, it's about that under underlying tension because I think that had Stoney not wanted to go in and rob the banks, even the other women's reasons wouldn't have been enough to get them to do it. But because her brother was, you know, shot, savagely shot and killed, mistaken identity uh by the police, that was the impetus for them to push that in the anger to be fueled by what was happening. So things like Rodney King and all of those types of things happening uh kind of fueled that fire. So I think that this is the film that kind of was able to post that in a hip way because F. Gary Gray, the director of it, was a hip hop video director at the time.
SPEAKER_05I was wondering who he was, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I think too he did Boys and the Hood.
SPEAKER_05No, he didn't do Boys and Friday. Friday, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I I always think he did both of them, but he did Friday.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Boys of the Hood was directed by um John Singleton.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I get him mixed up.
SPEAKER_02I have to correct myself because last week when when we did um Crying Game, I said that this was his uh directorial debut, but that's I I mixed it up with Friday.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I I always think for some reason he did both of those, but I know too. He also too has a cameo in the movie as well. He's the guy in the low rider. Oh, is he really? Yeah, that's yeah, yeah. I was like, hey, I know that guy. Well, I don't know him, but I know. It was right after. Right after, yeah. Because he kind of like every gray, like Ice Cube, that kind of movie. Like I said, that was his first film. It kind of um escalated his career.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. He had done some video um like before he did Friday, he did a couple of music videos. Ice Cube. He also did a Queen Latifah video, and then later he did an outcast video, but that was after, you know, he was a little bit more.
SPEAKER_05I was curious about Queen Latifah. Where was she at in her acting career at this point?
SPEAKER_02This was this was after music and after um in Living Color. Okay, so this is after Living Color.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think she was a badass in this one.
SPEAKER_01Because I think she was a badass in this one.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, she was. She was the badass in this one.
SPEAKER_03This was, I think she said that this is the favorite, her favorite character like role she's ever had.
SPEAKER_02Like I think uh I read that when they were doing the the table read, um, she started reading the uh the script, and at one point she said, I am this bitch.
SPEAKER_03Well, the one thing, and then I'm not even gonna say like I'm not gonna go and say it's like I think it's a plot hole or problem with the film. It's just one thing that I kind of like is it kind of like is it's used more as like a joke, and I was like, okay, cool. I think it's funny is every time like when she would go steal a car, she'd judge the music with the I loved that because I'm one of my favorite things she's tossing the CDs out of the car. And then she's just like, listen to the because I thought what was gonna happen, it was ultimately gonna maybe be here, like her undoing. Yeah, yeah. Like I thought they were gonna get the fingerprints. So I was every time I was like, no, don't do it because you gotta think at that time too that it was.
SPEAKER_00Oh, they weren't, yeah. Yeah, it wasn't that technologically.
SPEAKER_03That's what I like though, that it it wasn't. You know, it was kind of um, like I said, there was more drama, it was more her whole, you know, fate of the film. Like I said, it's more character-driven. Yeah. Something just small, like, oh, and then we caught them from the CDs and they went to prison, they went to jail, or they died because um jumping ahead just a little bit. Um and I can imagine, Jerry, for you being as a kid is why it stuck so much. So I had seen this movie now, I'm like in my 30s, and I'm just thinking, I'm like, seeing a movie where a finale is in downtown LA and they're flying a helicopter through downtown. I'm like, you never see that anymore. Like, in any movie, yeah, like with that skill where they're going through like the second street, the they're going through the bridge, they have the helicopters, they have the police cars flying through. And I mean, yeah, you can say like they do it now and some movies, but it's always just Well, I don't understand what you're saying.
SPEAKER_05I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_03No, I'm saying with the finale of having like it's get into the mic.
SPEAKER_05I'm saying the finale is really cool of just seeing like But you say you never see what anymore?
SPEAKER_02Just I mean like he means you you don't see like that physical, the physicality of like real like real helicopters flying through like you mean practical, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, because for me, I don't think about in LA, even though we have terrible traffic. The thing that always makes me laugh is when I see a movie that's set in New York, a cop movie, and for some reason, where are all the people that I'm crowded in when I go to New York? And all the streets are crowded. They're never crowded in those movies. No, they just don't know people doing fast car chases down Madison Avenue. It's like what?
SPEAKER_03All they have in those movies is they just always have the hot dog vendor at the corner. That's terrible business. But no, I think the like the finale of this movie I thought was just I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
SPEAKER_02Which is it's really cool because you you look at the budget. It was like modestly budgeted. It was like what, nine million? Yes, nine million.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. And it made 41 million.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So like to think that I from what I was reading, they were stretching that budget as much as they could. They wanted it to be feel as like big and real as possible.
SPEAKER_05And they I feel like they did, but it was also very actor-driven. It was very story-driven. It wasn't there, there wasn't, I mean, there wasn't a lot of money to be spent on effects and stuff because it was really not that movie. It was really very. I also kind of liked kind of I also liked the way they shot the film in the sense that it felt like it felt very not docky real, but it felt very real. It felt kind of raw versus like really nice, clean setup shots. Some of the shots weren't very clean in terms of how they were set up, but that was kind of but it was consistently kind of that way, where it kind of felt like Yeah, we're kind of a little rough shot at times without it getting shaky and doggy. I hate that. You know, it it it it just had a very kind of like, oh well, we're like really here. We're like really watching, we're like in this room with surrealism. Yeah. I mean, and even the dialogue on top of each other a little bit. Maybe a little on you know, the dialogue there's it was just it felt the dialogue felt very real. It felt very naturally coming out of those characters. Yeah. Especially too in the And they were able to keep it tight enough where it didn't go rambling.
SPEAKER_03Like in the scene too, where they were just kinda like like hanging out like in the like with the low in the roof, that one, and then even with like the low riders.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, at the at the first the first time they uh meet up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we're like off of work. You know, we just work all night.
SPEAKER_02I'm I'm not gonna say that when I grew up I I was around like people that were like that all the time. But growing up, um I grew up in Pacoima in, you know, um Panorama City. Like we were always adjacent to people like that were, you know, a little what's the word I I don't you know what I mean? Like people that are no yes, but also people that were less well off, you know, like like it's it's always been a thing for me because um growing up I I we went from being homeless to living in a mobile home to apartments to a home. So like I saw various different states of um poverty and then you know middle class life. So it all felt real to me in a way that somebody who lived it would would know. You know what I mean? Like sure, and it goes down to the dialogue, the the relationships, the the st the archetypes that the girls um fill in. And uh I think one of the things that rings the most true for me is or or why it rings most true is because um what's it called? Um because the girls themselves were were I you know what I lost the train of fucking thought as I was saying. It's okay, I understand. You know what I mean though? Like it's it's no, I get it. It's a it's a lived in story. Yes, for sure. And I think that's its biggest strength.
SPEAKER_03Did you ever see the movie Um uh Florida Project? No, but I heard it it's very so it's kind of similar in the sense I think what you were trying to say is that it's you can tell, like, oh, you know, every these characters they live in the projects and everything. But it's never tries to fashion like look, they're poor. Yeah, it's not it's just to them, it's just like no, this is just their daily lives, and we're just going through their life. It's not trying to draw any attention to it, and it's trying to make it like it's not exploited at all. It's not exploited exactly that exactly. And it's not like look, we're trying to throw messages in here.
SPEAKER_02No, which is what which is what Jerry said. Exactly. I agree, exactly. It doesn't feel preachy. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00But it's loaded with all of that type of stuff because of the groundedness and the reality that these are like um the trying to the the offhanding your beliefs and your your dreams into this brother who's going to this college and the pressure that is on him, right? When he when he's also a member of this community that he wants to be accepted into as a man, right? All of that is is baked into this this reality of project living, of socioeconomic, the the their upbringing, their socioeconomic background, right? So all of that's there is just the the pressure cooker of being in America, being black in America, uh being low income in America, being disenfranchised in America, being powerless in America. You fire me because I am associated to people who rob this bank. You're not even giving me a chance to prove myself. Because they live in the same project communities that I live in, I have to know them and I have to be complicit in this, right? That's uh, you know, how do you how do you navigate those worlds without anger?
SPEAKER_03That's the same thing because it wasn't even like, you know, because there's the whole thing where John C. McGinley's like, what's the first thing you do? It wasn't even they do the whole thing, but it's not even that reasoning. Jerry, like you said, it's very much just the reasoning is it's a bad look. Like it's guilty by SLC. Guilty by the way, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Like that wouldn't be, if we're speaking freely or f or rightfully, would not be given to someone who didn't look like her. Right? Yeah. Because specifically she's who she is, specifically she's from where she's from, she has she cannot be given the benefit of the doubt. Right? That's kind of what the that's kind of what that moment is speaking to too. Then it's also looking at how one of my favorite lines in the uh movie is where when it opens, she says, damn, sister, you ain't even offer me uh a drink as nothing to drink. Because that also speaks to how even intra-racially, once you cross a certain divide, you you denounce the race, quote unquote, and you go into the the the blue, right? The blue of it all. So damn, you're on that side. You didn't even you you couldn't sympathize with me enough to see what I'm going through in this moment. When you probably in your own way deal with this with these men around you all the time, right? So it's though that those type of things are there. You can watch it for it, you can get that for it if that's what you're watching for and getting it for. And that's something I didn't get at six. That's something I didn't get, you know, at 14 when I'm watching this hood classic with my homies. I'm just seeing, you know, oh shit, bank robbery and da-da-da, and the move- the classic with the CDs and everything. But then as you start to get more informed, you start to see uh what's happening in the world, contextually, what's happening, you're like, oh, okay, this is what's happening. This is these are the levels of it and the dimensions of it that I'm thinking. You think about like in '96, for Cleo to be as um openly queer, that was revolution. I mean, like uh uh the movie itself was like this how can this be done? Four black women leading a bank heist film, how does that happen? And be a commercial success, right? But um, I don't know. I think um, and maybe I'm biased because I'm the one who saw it when I was six. I think that this was one of those movies that was critically underappreciated.
SPEAKER_05Well, I never for sure.
SPEAKER_00I know I didn't know it at all.
SPEAKER_05But it's hearing you talk about all this and giving so much context to this movie is really interesting. Because when I was watching the movie, my experience in watching the first, particularly the first act, and and I talk about this a lot in podcasts. I I tend to kind of not judge, but I kind of make decisions about movies very early. First act. And rarely am I wrong. Rarely do movies get better after the first act. Like the first act doesn't really work for me, it doesn't get better. And I was very um iffy about the first act, and mainly because, but now that you're talking about it, it really changes my thoughts. But when I was watching it, it made me feel like, okay, you're just hammering me over the head to get me into bank robbery. I knew we were gonna be start robbing banks. Sure. I knew that. So now you're just giving me every horrible scenario you can to make it okay for you guys to go start robbing banks. That's all you're doing. But interestingly, that I didn't that that's so I had kind of a real, oh, okay, okay, that's how I was feeling. But then after they start robbing banks, and the movie kind of for me kind of set off on another play, then I was like, oh, this movie's really cool. So set it off? It it did set it off. But but when you talk about it in context, uh it's it it then I look at it and I go, okay, that's just m my life, my experience of my life watching a movie, going, okay, I don't I'm not I I'm not connecting to all the stuff that you guys are doing. All I'm hearing is all I'm seeing is really bad shit that's just an excuse as a storytelling, not in real life, to get to the to get to that. Yeah. So anyway.
SPEAKER_00And even then I think that uh as I watched it later, I'm like, you still had other options, right? Like you definitely didn't steal, you know what I mean? Like you still didn't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But my dad used to say, I love him so much. My dad used to say to me, son, yes, dad, violence is what a man chooses when he feels like he has no other option. And contextually in the film, I look at it where when you are not as intelligent as some of us are, when you're not as emotionally aware as some of us are, your options per your understanding are extremely limited.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and and that is really what happens in the movie. I mean, from their perspective and in the world they're in, they're at that point that your dad's talking about. They don't have any other options that they that they have, that they understand.
SPEAKER_00You just sold your body, and then your brother tells you he didn't get into school. And then he tells you that that money is not necessary. She didn't care, she had nothing to lose. This was never about money for her, right? For Stoney. Right. Because she had a check that she ripped up out of anger, right? Had gotten that money, and now she could have pocketed that and been fine, probably in getting the money that she ended up getting over the course of the film. That was she was broken as a person because now her dreams. If her brother still lived, there was a possibility that the dream could have actually done something. She could have talked shit to him enough or done what it, whatever. But the murder means like, no, I don't have anything. So I'm I'm willing to die. And that is when you get to that point, you have you, you're gonna, you don't, you don't give a fuck. Excuse me. Can we say you don't give a fuck? Well, you can't so sorry.
SPEAKER_02No, we can't usually we've dropped like 50 of them. Oh, I'm sorry. We talk about clitorises all the time. I love them. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00No, I do. I love them. It's very kind. Um, yeah, so it's kind of like because I do understand what you're saying. Even for me, from a middle class dad and mom, this and living this type of life, it would have been okay, baby girl. Or you know what I mean? Or or Frankie, get you a good lawyer and file a lawsuit, baby. You would have owned the bank. But you don't have those options when you're from there. And so when your community is set up in such a way, which is why it's it, which is why, again, another critique that the film actually makes is that when you are in the projects, when you're in the hood, that's a pressure cooker for you to just somehow, somehow come in contact with law enforcement. Right you're gonna. So um, yeah, so again, very a lot, it's a lot that you have to bring to it if you know culturally, but outside of that, still from a entertainment value space, I think the film works on that level just like, yo, this is a great shoot-em up as well, is what we used to call it.
SPEAKER_05It for sure works on that level. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03The opening, you're still facing it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, the opening movie. I mean, the opening of the movie just like gets you right in, man. You're you're you're you're full in. It sets it all. I mean, like, within literally like three shots, you're already going, what the fuck? Yeah. I mean, you're already tensions like building so fast, you don't even know what the heck.
SPEAKER_00Sorry. I'm they're like, this dude talks so fucking much. Y'all invite y'all invited me here, so I'm gonna give you your money's worth. Um what's so even that just came to me was remember though, when the guy walks into the bank, even she's profiling him. You get what I'm saying? How that intra-racial it, she's already like, man, here we go with this. Something is, you get what I'm saying? Yeah. So then to the flip side of that, it's that I judge my own people. I did this, that didn't do me any good because I'm still on the opposite side of that on this, right? And for her, Frankie was the impetus to kind of like again, her nothing to lose moment because she had ascended from the hood. Yeah, I'm still a hood girl, but I'm the hood bitch that's working at the bank. Yes, I'm the one counting the money. So I have a chance to transcend this. When that's gone now, because now where are you gonna get another job as a bank teller? No other banks are gonna hire you. And if that's your only skill that you use to get you out of that impoverished community, well, guess what now? You have no hope.
SPEAKER_03Well, now she said too, she's like, I can't, I don't have any references. Nothing. Like nothing, nothing.
SPEAKER_00Nothing.
SPEAKER_02I think I saw it refer like the the the four women are are the different archetypes of what you know the the like I guess life paths that take you. And Frankie is very much the I did I did everything right and it wasn't good enough.
SPEAKER_00Which, how many of us are experiencing that right now in our 30s? Oh my gosh, I went to school, I went to college, I got my degree, I thought this was going to be the easy answer for me, and now, oh, I'm working at Costco. And I have to deal with all the da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da. I thought I thought I had escaped that. And this is a middle class person, you know what I mean? Getting paid quote unquote well, right? You kind of can still have that fury and that rage. Um and then TT She yeah, no, with I I just already knew.
SPEAKER_03I was like, it's not gonna end well.
SPEAKER_02The minute the minute the child shows up at work, you're like, I mean, other than like her just you know. Is it because she's she's very like timid? Timid, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, with her, I'm just like, yeah, and then she's you can tell, like I said, it doesn't, like I said, even with like just the way like her act, like the way she reacted to last year and things, it's like you can just tell, like, you know, like I said, this movie, you know, visual medium, it's showing like you can tell, like just a lot, like she's had like a rough life, like with everything. And you don't know, like when I was like a kid, never talked about the dads, it was like you don't I don't know, like you know, it's funny though, I don't know why I'm jumping there.
SPEAKER_05When I was watching the movie and getting to know the character of the four women, my brain immediately was like saying, I don't know what's gonna happen to the other three, but Queen Latifah, you're definitely going to die. I knew for sure she was gonna get shot up good. Yeah just because she was that was all set up. Yeah, because she's kinda just that whole reckless reckless sort of, you know.
SPEAKER_03Like I said, by the end she gets better, but uh for me, I didn't necessarily Oh, I thought she was cool. I didn't yeah, for no, I'm saying for me, I didn't necessarily think, oh, Queen Latifah, like you're gonna die. I was like, I was thinking, I was like, I'm like, please, is she gonna mess it up for something? Is something gonna happen?
SPEAKER_05But yeah, but we we sure. I mean, like Jerry was saying, I mean, bank robbery movies never really end well ever. Unless it's like one single heist that you're trying to pull off. Right. But if you're Bonnie and Clyde or you're uh what's the uh my my favorite uh with uh Chris Pine um uh Hell or High Water Hell or High Water, he you know this isn't gonna work out. I mean, even if with all good intentions, it's not gonna work out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and like I said, this one, you know, I I think this movie, with the way the heist are shot directed and everything, written a little bit, and I don't I'm not I'm not saying I think this movie's like topping them or like ripping off or like playing a monster. This movie's kind of like the encapsulation of like point break, heat, like all these other movies. Absolutely. But for me, I'm people are gonna hate me for this.
SPEAKER_05Oh good.
SPEAKER_03I have always felt like heat is a little the heist scene is cool, it's a little overrated.
SPEAKER_05For me, everybody thinks heat's overrated, I know you're gonna swear it's the best movie ever made. I I I don't know. It's to me to meet. Whoever says that.
SPEAKER_01You're going off tangent now. It's a three-hour soap of what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_05Travis, whoever thinks that's the best movie made isn't freaking idiot.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but my point is what I'm saying with this one is in this movie, I guess it runs me with Heat in the some ways where it's like, you know, you have your moments of like melodrama, you're spending time with the characters, but I feel like with this movie, it was much.
SPEAKER_05But unlike Heat, which takes its sweet time to go nowhere. This movie is going somewhere. You're in it. This movie, you're in it, man. This movie's in fourth gear, and the second shot, it just doesn't, it's just going. It's just going.
SPEAKER_01Okay, but who the fuck hates that cop that showed up last second and then created that last shootout?
SPEAKER_05Oh, okay. Hang on. I want first of all, I want to talk about. I don't know if we're talking about the same cop or not. Who is who's the actor who played the who played? John C. McGinley? Is that who you're talking about? No, it was Skinny. Okay, that's the first one. So the guy from Scrubs, funny, we were talking about that earlier. I must have blinked. At the very beginning, in the first interrogation after the bank robbery, he was a fucking ass. Yes. Yes, he was. And then all of a sudden, the next time around, he's like Mr. Protector of everyone's rights.
SPEAKER_01No, because he was just trying to get him them to surrender. He's still an ass through and through. You know what it is though?
SPEAKER_00No, I feel like he became like though. Which again was why I love this movie. I actually love this movie. This is one of my homies. I was telling you, like, if we wait till Friday, I have a homie who this is, I'm telling you, my homie Toby, this is his favorite movie on the planet. Um, and what I what I love about it is that the movie tries to humanize everybody, even the cop, because he's dealing with guilt throughout the whole film. There you go. He's dealing with the guilt of knowing that he killed an innocent black man. He's dealing with that. And I like that the movie, it's subtle, but it does show you that. That's why he lets Stoney go in the end, because it's about he has to atone for himself. He has to feel better about this. And him letting her go is almost like him being able to purge himself of knowing what he did to her to get her to this point, which is something that, you know, um you're not gonna get most times if you're in this situation in real life, right? Right. But for him to have given her that moment, I think that was a very a great way to not make it just so bad white cop, but like some people make bad choices in high um stakes environments. He was going into his jacket and he was coming out with something that in a high stake and high stake moment, I could have misread. Did we all need to lay into this man and obliterate him? Probably not. Um did go ahead. So sorry about it.
SPEAKER_03What Jerry's saying too is I think it's like, because I think that's his like one of his philosophers, John Z McGinley, it's when it shows in the beginning, he's this very obsessive cop. Right. Like to the point where he's like, I need everything. And that's the thing is you can kind of tell when it gets the best of them, is when they're at the apartment, when Stoney's brother dies, where right after everything happens, he's like, if he realizes what's going on, is like, oh my god, like we need to get like an ambulance here, like right now. And it's very much, you know, he could have been like tried to cover it up, you know, be like, oh well, I saw the gunner heaper, but it's very much like, no, like, I messed up. You know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's that when she, what have you done? What have you done? I think that that is was echo echoing because he was ne he he then had to fight with that's when his character became more nuanced, is that I'm still trying to find the fuckers who are out of this motherfucking bank. That is his Hank um Hank Hank from uh Breaking Bad, right? That's his Hank dogged approach. I'm gonna find who did this. But then when he does realize who did this and the connection that he has to who did this and why he's doing this, this is why when he's looking back at the bank footage, he sees her. Yeah. And he recognizes her. Oh shit. Okay, so now that's when it's like this, now there's a dichotomy to who he is. Because, yeah, I'm gonna catch her, but I own, I have to own some of this. I have to make some of that mine. And I think that that's why um his character wasn't, I couldn't completely hate him by the end. Right, exactly. Even though I wanted to, right? Because you want, you want the you you want the bad guy to to to those of us who, especially for us coming from the hood, right? Okay, so if I'm watching this, oh shoot, my phone. Um, if I'm watching this movie, I'm like, I want the girls to win and fuck the cops, right? But as a mature storyteller, writer, when I do it, I'm like, okay, they they did what you shouldn't do. They did what you did, which is make me empathize with him too. And that's always uh a sign of good storytelling for me.
SPEAKER_05I agree, for sure. Yeah. I thought he was a really interesting character. Yeah, he he wasn't one note. Um no, like a lot of cops in these kind of movies are typically, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I I had read that um they actually teamed him up with a retired cop to do some of the uh like uh pre um prep the prep work for for the movie, and I think it pays off. It it he feels very real.
SPEAKER_03They could have very, very like it's a you guys are saying, easily made him the like one note.
SPEAKER_00Especially if you wanted to make a film that was, again, pedantic and just on the nose of wrong guys. You get what I'm saying? That's then you don't need to humanize him, make him as vile as possible. But then even even the ladies, they have qualities that we don't like about them that would make him that would make us like, damn, no, but okay, yeah, you did get fired. Okay, yeah, you you do, you know, you have these things going on. So, um, I don't know, very, very good rendering of that character as well. I agree. Um Dr. Drake cameo, by the way. The gun dealer, the gun dealer Black Sam. She wanna talk to you.
SPEAKER_03Hey, hey, look, look, okay. He went from he went from sealing stolen cars to selling weapons, and then he sold headphones.
SPEAKER_05He got entrepreneurial in his own. Yeah, yeah. Do we want to go through our final thoughts? I feel like we've covered this really well.
SPEAKER_03I'm going a bit. I'm still going a bit.
SPEAKER_00I'm about to say we didn't even cover the love story at all.
SPEAKER_01The nine the very nineties love story. Music, the cutting.
SPEAKER_00Oh let go. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So speaking of the oil massage.
SPEAKER_00I was loved watching that as a six-year-old.
SPEAKER_02I thought that was Blair Underwood's butt.
SPEAKER_03I was convinced. No, I I was while watching the movie, I'm like, that has to be a butt double.
SPEAKER_00Jada was getting naked early on in her career a lot on screen. She had a this movie, Jason's lyrics, she was getting naked in the snow. I mean, naked outside. She was getting early. She was she was uh getting down early, and then uh she's you know got Will Smith and put kept her clothes on. But um, well, I would if I was married to Will Smith too.
SPEAKER_02But um Is that why she quit acting too?
SPEAKER_00I love you, Jada Pinky Smith. I love you, Will Smith. I love all the Smiths. I'm not besmirching the family.
SPEAKER_02Please. Um really her as an actor.
SPEAKER_03The one part that kinda kinda got me a little bit was the part where, so when she's, you know, after like the romance scene at night, and she wakes up and it's the next morning, and he's like, Oh, the next time we meet, like, I'm gonna make Italian food, and she knows she's lying, she's like, Oh, I'll give you a call. And she turns and she looks away, and she's trying to like hold it in from like getting upset. Like, I don't know, I thought that was really well done when she's like, she's holding it and she turns, she's like, Yeah, I'll call you. And then she turns around again.
SPEAKER_00What I will say, I think sometimes is that if this were I don't know, four of your it white girls in Hollywood at the time, this would have been an Academy Award-nominated movie. I really feel like if you had any of your league girls who were who did a four, a four-part thriller, because throw Sandra Bullock in there. For sure, right? But the movie, I think, because it was a hood classic and because it was it was this thing, um, I think that it just it didn't reach the broader audience critically like it should have. But I think it would it held its weight against any it like you bring you bring up heat or any of those movies, set it off, sits in there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like another one too that around the time gets a lot of attention, and like I said, some of it reminds me it's a little similar, um, but this one is like, you know, there's a little bit of point break in there as well. You know, especially like, oh, letting them go at the end and doing all of that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, like that final scene, like the death scene with uh Queen Latifa.
SPEAKER_03With the Impala? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely who the hydraulic if that was who? Uh uh Tiffy Hedrid.
SPEAKER_04Or Tiff Tiffy Hedrid.
SPEAKER_00Can you un can you imagine like Natalie Portman as as as a as a stony? Come on now. That would have they would have they ate this up at the Brees Witherspoon or one of these people got a uh a dark role. They would have ate this up uh globally and at the box office, right? And you can but because of I think how it was relegated, who was in it, it got as big as it could get, but didn't necessarily get to shine because like here would be my question for you what are some story holes and loopholes that you found in the film that you that that would have could have made it stronger?
SPEAKER_05Let me think about that. I wasn't wild about the whole Blair Underwood relationship, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_00For tension, for story's sake, it had to be there.
SPEAKER_05It had to be there, but it was it it felt they were sometimes the movie especially like I'm um not trying to avoid your question, but um like in the music, uh sometimes it had like TV cop show music going on in the action sequences. Okay. They literally sounded like they were on those 90s TV cop shows.
SPEAKER_03With like the saxophone?
SPEAKER_05Just whatever. And the and that relationship, although I agree it had to be there, it just felt very I it felt very it didn't feel lived in to me like the rest of the movie. Okay, so it felt very, very like, oh, we have to have this, and I didn't find it interesting at all.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_05Umly because oh, oh, there's the nice guy. But here's the thing. Think about the nice guy.
SPEAKER_00But think about it in the perspective or sense of he represents everything her brother was going to be to her.
SPEAKER_05No, I I get all that. I mean, no, actually I didn't even think about that.
SPEAKER_00That was who our brother was supposed to be.
SPEAKER_05You you have a very deep dive into this movie. I have a very deep dive into it. Which is great for us. I've seen it one time. So my my my reaction.
SPEAKER_00So can we do a part two where we watch where we come back in a year and do it?
SPEAKER_05I'm literally looking at it from one very shallow watch. What I always like when I watch movies, I just go, I just turn off and go, okay, entertain me. Let's see what happens here. So that felt very purposeful, it felt very purposeful. It felt very, okay, we have to do this. So it didn't feel natural to me. Sure. It felt very forced into the story. And also I thought it interesting that in my and I'm sorry I don't know the character's name, but at the beginning, the bank robbery, for me, that was she was being set up as the main character. Oh, Frankie. In the middle of Act One, it was Jada. They just switched, they completely changed who the main character was, in my opinion. Because she was the main character, for sure.
unknownI mean.
SPEAKER_05What's that?
SPEAKER_00Moy Interessante.
SPEAKER_05Very interesting. That's just how I read it. Because I was totally on board with, oh, well, it's gotta be. I mean, she's the one getting screwed, she's the one getting fired, she's the one now, you know, all this stuff's happening. Then all of a sudden we just conveniently switch over to Jada and go, okay, wait, what? Because by introducing that love story and introducing that whole journey, and sorry, and introducing I said sorry, because that's fine, I wasn't talking. But again, I think it goes back to the city. And then putting her to the end of the movie and the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00That made her the But I think it goes back to the idea that um I still I feel like had she not been the one to decide to rob the bank, they wouldn't have robbed it. So uh they wouldn't have gone on the spree, right? I think it was when she decided, she was the nucleus of the group. She was the the the the girl of the group that held it all together. She was the uh the the uh what I the emotional balance. Yeah she was the because again, I think that they all when you're in these environments, you're looking for the focal point that gets you to the zenith or north star. Right for all of those girls, I think that that rested kind of a little bit in stony, right? Now, but I do 100% get what you're saying in terms of how that was set up, and if we're going straight by film structure, this is the person who we think we're following. But again, I come back to the uh it's an ensemble where she just was the survivor.
SPEAKER_05Right.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? Because you had to you got all all the ladies' kind of point of view of how they got inside. It TT's came a little bit later as weaved into the story. Cleo's too came a little bit weaved into the story, but um they were TT was down for the ride no matter what. She was a lost cause, no or liability. Oh yeah, yeah. But Frankie and um Stoney, I think were the engines, and Frankie was just enough to get you know that that that Jada character. But I think that it was good. I never thought about it like that. There you go. See? I think viewing.
SPEAKER_05If if oh but I think also just putting in that love story also just broadened her storyline so much bigger than anybody else's at that point. I mean, we literally sorry, I keep hitting her with the camera.
SPEAKER_03And I feel like if this were a less serious movie when I was because so it shows right, she's at the gala, she's at the banquet, she's meeting all the banger people from everywhere, and then she ends up robbing the bank. So I'm thinking, is he getting fired the next day? You know what I mean? I'm like, is this setting up because she they call on the phone and like she's in Mexico? I'm like, is he driving over, meeting her? Right, and they're robbing banks in the sinkle. Right. The uh the the credits shows the uh the Polaroids. Yeah, I was like, I don't know what the sequel would be called.
SPEAKER_00Set it off set off again.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, set it off again. Yeah, more to set it off.
SPEAKER_00Um setting offs. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know what? You you you do make a good point now that I think about it, because Frankie is the one that tells them, let's rob a bank.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I know the steps.
SPEAKER_02It's kind of like a like a like a trade-off. Like once she does that, it's like the baton is handed over to Stony. But I feel like in a way, she still is like maybe like the sublead or the co-lead. Because she gets the the final and just before Stoney. She goes the furthest in the story. Correct.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because because my thing too with with her is like I get her character thing. Like, I get what, you know, unjustice that was done to her, but for me, I'm like, okay, so what for me, I was like, what's going on in her life right now though? Because it's like she'll just hang with a bank. I'm like, because you know, when she dies and everything, I'm like, I don't know. I was always wondering them, like, what's her you get what I'm saying? Like what's um No, I don't get what you're saying. Frankie.
SPEAKER_02Um what's her what's her reasoning?
SPEAKER_03No, not her reasoning, but like for me, it seems like her character is like it's there, so we set her up, like you know, she gets fired, and then she decides to rob the banks. But I feel like other than that, like outside of it, like I don't know, like you don't really get much I don't really get more of her character at all.
SPEAKER_01I think she's her moment when she faced off with the cop at the end. Yeah, she did that callback. I think essentially that was like her thing.
SPEAKER_03Okay, yeah. But leading up to that was kind of, you know. Because never mind.
SPEAKER_00Go on, go, say what you gotta say.
SPEAKER_03No, because I was saying because like Dan said it's like they were setting her up a bit to, you know, be the main character, and then it's like I feel like in every other character, like you have Jada where it's like, okay, when they're not robbing banks, she's doing something else.
SPEAKER_05Well, nobody else was doing anything else. Jada was the only one doing anything else in the street.
SPEAKER_00Well, TT was being a mother, yeah.
SPEAKER_05And Queen Lativa was being like a study. I know, but we didn't really follow it very much. We really followed the Jada relationship.
SPEAKER_01With Blair Underwood Frankie's life was that work. Correct. So once that was gone, she just didn't have anything else and then she sucked at Luther's job. But also Luther.
SPEAKER_00Hilarious.
SPEAKER_01For a second, I thought, are we really going after Luther? Is he the main villain right now? No. It's like that cannot be it. When when he was like, Luther, I loved it. When he robbed them, when they went back to work and they saw, oh, somebody else took over the company. Oh. So they want to get money and it was gone, and they're like, Luther.
SPEAKER_05My only thing with that is that Luther's scene was that was pretty crazy. I loved it.
SPEAKER_03No, the only thing with me with Luther is like, I get it, like, okay, we're gonna hide the money in the in the in the in the vent here because no one's gonna see it. But I'm like, so clearly they set up the they open the vent, they put it there, but there's like a T. I'm like, I would have moved it over to the side because it was like invisible view. I'm like, if anyone looks under there, and then I think too, Luther has my favorite line in the entire movie.
SPEAKER_00Get back to work.
SPEAKER_03Nope. There's three people I don't mess with: the I, the R, and the S. Go on. My favorite line in the entire movie.
SPEAKER_00Go on.
SPEAKER_02And they do it again with another character when um John C with Detective Strode is asking to bring Stony in. And uh, I guess his superior is like, no, and he's like, But don't you understand? The N or the No?
SPEAKER_00Or the N or the O? What do you don't you understand? Stroll the N or the O? Um, yeah, no. Um I'm gonna go back and rewatch it now to look at the love story and see it to see if I have a different thought process on it, because maybe I do, maybe I don't, I don't know. Um even though I did watch it again recently. I tell you, this is my friend's Toby's favorite movie. We watched that off often.
SPEAKER_03So you watched, you said I I think you watched it just recently for this on VHS.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, no, no. Like on the show. Oh, for the first time, I was like, whoa, you still have the tape? When I originally watched this movie, it was on a VHS, yes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, because that's why because you were like, I was like, whoa, you watched it again on VHS? Oh, I wish I could watch it. I was like, that's cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, I I I thoroughly enjoy this movie and um Yeah. I could go on and on for days.
SPEAKER_03Alright.
SPEAKER_05Are you okay now?
SPEAKER_03I'm yeah, I'm satisfied.
SPEAKER_05Alright.
SPEAKER_02So let's do final thoughts then. Yeah, I think it's about time. I think we've we really dug into like the biggest parts, which is really the characters and the acting. Like we we we didn't really talk too much about the action, but I mean, what can you really say? It's good. I really love the moment where the uh the SUV uh breaks through the box. That's that's the moment that I always remember from the movie.
SPEAKER_03Did he direct the Italian job remake?
SPEAKER_02He did, and he also directed uh Fate of the Furies.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's why with this, I was like, I'm like, okay, I see why they got him. I see why they got him.
SPEAKER_00And this was one of those movies that, again, Friday is one movie. It's a totally different movie, totally and a different ask from a director for this one, right? So this was the movie that really set him off to get those bigger budget films down the line because they saw how you can handle this.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Good stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he did a great job with it for sure.
SPEAKER_03Who wants to start?
SPEAKER_02Sam. You can set it off.
SPEAKER_00What are you talking about? What's the procedure talking about when you have a gun to your head?
SPEAKER_03Or at heart. Rap heart and then with uh the beginning, with the time about with the with the right hand. With the right hand when you're gonna get away. Oh, the right hand clip. Right, with the right hand, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um I like I said earlier, I think what made me really enjoy this movie was just the characters and how they set them up and how the motivations between like how or why they needed to rob the bank and the bond between all of them. I think it really has shown through that they are actually really close. Like it's very genuine. Um nothing special about like the the camera stuff, but again, the story was what did it for me. Um so overall I will give it three out of five. You got to recycle.
SPEAKER_05Oh docking your pay. That's funny. I I I I I I thought it was crazy that this was something where I actually talked out loud to the movie at that moment. When they're standing outside of the bank and putting their wigs on. I was like, why didn't you put your wigs on while you're in the car? For God's sake. You're literally standing at the entrance of the bank putting your wigs on. Go ahead. There you go. I had to get that out of the way.
SPEAKER_03No, go ahead. You're already talking.
SPEAKER_05Um you don't know what to say, do you? I do, but it's just Sam just went. You go a little bit. You actually don't know what to say. I do know what to say. No, you don't.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I do.
unknownTravis fucking go.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so um never heard of this movie. I'm watching it. Bank robbery. Bank robbery, bank robbery comes in. I'm really liking it. And and like this just a movie, because I I know last week when we were talking about hours, I said I like the beginning the most, and then I just the rest of the parts were okay. I I feel like just the longer this one went on, the more I really liked it.
SPEAKER_05Um I Are you referring back to Crying Game?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, I have the microphone, so you're gonna listen to you're gonna listen to everything I have to say.
SPEAKER_05Go ahead.
SPEAKER_03Dan, you had your chance. Um, no, but I'm just saying it's and by I think like the second robbery from when they, you know, they crashed into the with the SUV, and you know, I think it was a turn for Queen Latifah's character and everything. I was glued instantly. Like glued. Um it was one of those where stayed up really late to finish it, totally worth it. Um I think John C. McGinley, I've always really liked him as an actor. I think every performance I think in this movie was great. Um, I can see like why King Latifa really took off acting after this. Um certificate fucked everyone. It's just a well, well-around movie. And then like I said, it's like I was kind of bringing up, is you have like, you know, the essential like 90s heist bank rod rumors, but I feel like this one just never got brought brought, never gets brought up. And I just can't believe I never heard of it. I'm glad because even today at work when I was time, but I was like, oh, I saw this movie called Set It Off. I'd never heard of it, and people were like, You've never heard of that movie? Literally, like, it's great. I'm like, now I know. Yeah. Um, but no, I mean, it's one of those where I mean I can see myself re-watching it. Um, especially it's one of those, like, if it's on like Streamsworth TV and it's on, I'm just gonna get glued. Um, but no, it's at the end of the day. I'm gonna give it four out of five. Um yeah, butt doubles.
SPEAKER_05There you go. I'm gonna jump right in. For me, the movie, as I was saying earlier, I was not I was questioning the movie in the first act. Um, but the movie just got better and better and better. And by the time we got in the third act and we were rocking through this thing, I mean it was it was a great ride. I mean, I was I was so into the movie. I thought the the the final uh uh action sequences all the way to the end were really well done. I thought the acting was really good. I I never I don't know that I had an opinion about Jada as an actress, honestly. I'm not even sure I can name another movie she's ever been in. Screen screen two. What is she in screen? Collateral. She was the opening. Yeah, she was the opening kill. Oh, I don't even remember that. I wanted to see the Sandra Bullock movie. She was in collateral. Yeah, that's a great movie. So I thought it was, you know, I thought she was great. I thought every I thought all of them were really good. Yeah. And um, I'm really glad I saw it. I've never heard of them. I'm gonna ask my friends now when I see them, do you know this movie? I'll I'm just gonna be interested to see what they're if they have heard of it or if they've seen it and go, really, Dan? Really? You don't know this movie? So I'm gonna give it three out of five wigs. I mean, I'm telling you that. The plastic masks were cool, but the wigs, when they're standing right outside the bank door putting the wigs on, and I was literally screaming at the TV, why didn't you do that in the car?
SPEAKER_03For me, the one the one that got me in the scene wasn't is when they were scoping the bank. And you know, uh, they were walking around, but for me, it was like TT wish it kept like looking over, like, come on, let's go. And you're taking too long. I'm like, you're drawing all the attention right now. That's why she had to die.
SPEAKER_00That's why she had to die.
SPEAKER_03I know I was like, you're making it so obvious now that something's going on.
SPEAKER_00Let me tell you. Oh, I mean, I'll do my final thoughts, but this is aside. TT would have had to go. No, I love her. I love you, baby. And that's what you do. I love you. You when you when you my dad, another one of his quote, son, when you get into an unscrupulous business, you gotta leave your scruples. So, sorry, baby, you're a liability. That's why I love the moment when Frankie was like, yo, she ain't do nothing, she don't get nothing. I really loved it. I loved it. She didn't do nothing. We put our shit on the line, and she did not do nothing. She don't get shit.
SPEAKER_03She had to kick the bus.
SPEAKER_00Listen, I don't care. You gotta get your son back or whatever, bitch. We went in there and we were robbing a fucking bank and you decided to piece out. You do not get anything. I really wish they would have kept she would have stuck to it and she should have robbed a bank with them the next time. But anywho.
SPEAKER_02There won't be a next time. I agree. Frank. Uh I'm gonna go next, and then that that way you can um, you know. Oh, whoa, thank you. So I love this movie so fucking much. Like, it it was a classic growing up in my house, like, after I was able to watch it. Um I watch it like Yeah. I watch it uh uh like every every so often, like very consistently. I watched it when I went uh uh when I went to Mexico a couple weeks ago. Like it was like in your head. It was a comfort like like watch while I was doing other stuff. Um uh I think it's it's thankfully held up on on the uh you know the the the rewatch. Um I definitely get what you mean uh in terms of like all the little things like the wigs. I think it speaks to their inexperience, the fact that they're in over their heads, which is very clear by the end. And um uh I I though the one thing that always kind of like got me, but I think it's more uh uh uh just because of the uh the budget and the constraints that they had. Because I know um for that second robbery, they shut down Wilshire Boulevard.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that was right by the Academy Museum.
SPEAKER_02And they only had one shot to do that scene. They only had one shot to get um the the car stuff in. So I get it. I would have liked a little bit of a faster response from the police once the car goes in, but you know, it's like that movie time where you know everything's kind of happening at the same time, so it's okay.
SPEAKER_05Um it's like the gun that has endless bullets.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Um it's not enough to to bother me. Like the the the story rings true like uh even like sometimes when I watch the movie I'll be like you know this was then right but like it's uh does it connect with people now because you know it's 2026 and then yesterday we were supposed to meet up and and on the way to like like building up to meeting up I get uh a notification on my on my phone I don't know if you guys know this there was a there was the Cohen Wiley the the one year old that was killed shoplifting and cop knew that he was being held that he was in the car still shot at the car with with um what's it called with with people around like it's 2026 and stuff like this still happens you know it's and we are in LA I don't know when if it's ever gonna stop but as as long as it's not as it's you know reality somewhere this movie's gonna still be relevant so um I'm gonna give it a two no he's gonna give it a five I'm gonna give it five out of five bitches with guns I'm bitches with guns I'm the fifth bitch yeah God I love that wacky radio stuff the performances though like every single time the all the deaths always hit Stoney's face when when um uh John C. McGinley like notices her like you can tell her face is like please don't don't please please please also John C. McGinley great super caked up in this movie I forgot all about the cake yep the cake but also his acting is so good. But the cake the cake is there too um yeah no I I this it's a classic it's a hood classic Dan it is it is and it should be just an American classic it should be you know what yeah I it it sucks that it's it's uh underappreciated even for the time it was underappreciated the the uh the money that it made was from repeat viewing so it it it became a cult classic but uh when it came out it wasn't you know it didn't make as big waves as it should have I think I think it was really really as timely as made apparent by each of you guys in the room now saying how much you love the film right had you all had we all went to see it and or been able to see it when it came out we could have had a you know a huge number one film because it's accessible to everybody.
SPEAKER_00Yeah I'm sorry to cut you off no no that was it you're on man five bitches with guns well thank y'all for having me first and foremost again for inviting me here and to talk about a movie that I am so intimately connected with um I love set it off like you I I I don't need to probably watch it as much as I do because I literally have it in my head memorized. So I'm always uh me and my homie Toby literally are texting each other I'm in a buy Nate I need that money um literally all the time um and uh there's a song at the end of the movie with Shaka Khan and Brandy Tamia and Gladys Knight called Missing You I used to could not listen to that song forever because this movie had a visceral reaction to me when I watched it and so those movie those moments were like I when I would hear that song I would I immediately identify with TT's death and I immediately identified with Frankie's death and Cleo's death when that and so it was like you were in the film viscerally that way. I love set it off I love set it off I love set it off I love set it off I love set it off I love set it off I don't know how much more to say that um other than I love set it off and I'm gonna give it five out of five banana flambets.
SPEAKER_05There you go there you go thank you outstanding this is great this is so much fun thank you for introducing us to Jerry and thank you for introducing this movie to us this was really cool really good insights yeah you do you you you brought a lot to this movie because it really opened my eyes up to a lot of things thank you I appreciate that and giving us a lot of background and context which I really appreciate thank you yeah I appreciate that makes me really want to watch the movie again so I was hoping you would say I don't I don't re-watch movies that's not something you know about me but I'm really into the moving on to the next movie kind of guy because I would love to see as many movies as possible versus seeing one movie over and over and over again. But there are times when I see a movie and maybe I go oh I need to take another look at this movie now that I have a different kind of climax understanding of topic. Yeah. So anyway this has been great thank you I don't know what we're doing next do we know what we're doing next thing about doing a plan I want to do a There will be blood. Oh well there will be blood be great we should also do simple plan I think we should do both we're doing vape heist slowly but you said uh there will be blood in kind of heist of some kind blood I love a heist drink my milkshake I love that I'd rather not can I get invited back when we discuss Lars and the real girl sure we'll make a note I love that one until next time please follow us share like review what's the other stuff Frank um subscribe subscribe tell your friends tell your enemy enemies tell your enemies tell the people you love tell the people you hate tell the enemies when you're at an intersection of the street and singing out loud when you're at an intersection just put down your windows today we are strangers in the Alps a movie podcast my name is Dan Travis Sam Frank and I am Jerry and we are you say that every time what it's true it's my month